Another Kind of Conscientious Objector
Joshua Key joined the US Army to make money to support his family, and to serve his country.
After discovering the military had lied to him and that the war was a horrorshow that had nothing to do with liberation, when Key was sent back to Colorado for two weeks leave with his family, he packed them into the car and they became fugitives.
We were ordered to take aim at everyone, but I never pointed my weapon at a child. I felt only a strong compassion. I’m not GI Joe, I’m just a civilian who’s trapped inside a military uniform. I’m a guy who feels betrayed by his own country. And who asks himself: “I’m here, for what?” There aren’t any weapons of mass destruction, no planes, no tanks, no army. Just families, people who we’re terrorizing, and whose lives we’re tearing apart…
We rain down gunfire on their heads from our helicopters, our tanks are in their cities, the interrogations, the check-points, the nine o’clock curfew, it’s all totally arbitrary. At any time you can be thrown in prison. At any moment your car can be blown up. You shoot first, think later. How many Iraqis have been killed simply because of the language barrier? I remember a father and his little boy who were machine gunned, in two seconds, because they didn’t understand the meaning of the word “Stop!” I was horrified. They didn’t have any weapons. They were totally innocent.
After that I refused to open fire indiscriminately, preferring to give people the benefit of the doubt. It’s clear it was us who was in the wrong. But I never signed up to kill fathers, mothers, children.
Key and his family eventually headed up to Canada, where he has applied for status as a refugee.
I’m sure that some folks would call him a coward or a traitor. But seriously, what’s the more ethical position, saying “I’m going to refuse to do these terrible things even if it means I go to jail” or “I’m going to continue with the mindless violence because I signed a contract saying I would”?
If you want to hear Key’s story, he is touring Canada with the War Resisters Support Campaign to talk about his experiences.
[crossposted at New Noise]
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A lot of people are making the same decision by choosing to not sign up. I definatly don’t think he’s a traitor- especially not after reading about Andy Raya
Comment by a person — August 1, 2005 @ 10:41 pm
I think he is far from being a traitor. I believe he, being indoctrined into the military, and the difficulty of breaking awayfor reasons too long to discuss here, and yet was able to make that choice and escape (in body and mind) makes him an exceptional human being. I may be called a coward myself, however, if I am ever put in a situation where there is a war and I have a teenaged child and there is an imposed draft, we WILL be moving to Mexico or Canada, guaranteed. War is incoherent. Unless I have to defend my home from foreign invaders, which is no different from other countries being confronted with the likes of us, you will not find me or anyone in my family training to terrorize and kill people. No blame on the soldiers, they are innocent- the pentagon is to blame.
Comment by sandra — August 29, 2005 @ 8:34 am