Conscientious Objector Numbers Are Small but Growing

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

*****   Published on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 by the New York Times

Conscientious Objector Numbers Are Small but Growing
by Laurie Goodstein

When Stephen E. Funk enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves last fall,
going to war was the last thing on his mind. He was 19 and, as he put
it, adrift after a year at college when a recruiter sold him on the
Marines by talking up the leadership skills, camaraderie and
confidence he would learn in the armed forces.

But while in boot camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Mr. Funk said,
he began to feel like "a hypocrite" when he was ordered to shout out
"Kill!" as the recruits drilled.

And when his unit was mobilized for Iraq in February, he said, he
wanted no part of it. "I don't think the president's pursuit of this
war is a very moral or godly thing," he says.

Mr. Funk did not report for duty and now is among a small number of
military members who are seeking discharges as conscientious
objectors.

With the military an all-volunteer force, the numbers are nothing
like during the Vietnam War, when the nation relied on a draft.

Still, with recruiting campaigns advertising the promise of job
skills, tuition benefits and discipline, some members of the military
now say there was little frank talk about the realities of combat.

"War wasn't a part of it at all for me. I never even thought about
it," said Mr. Funk, from Seattle, who plans to turn himself in for
punishment today at his base in San Jose, Calif., for being absent
without leave. "I thought it would be like Boy Scouts."

He is not the only one having second thoughts. Antiwar groups say
that an increasing number of military personnel are calling antiwar
hot lines to say they do not want to fight in Iraq for religious,
moral or political reasons. The military also reports that the number
of enlisted people it has discharged as conscientious objectors,
while few, has risen slightly in the past six months while troops
were being mobilized for the war.

The law allows members of the military to obtain conscientious
objector status if they can prove that during their training or
service they developed a deeply held objection to all wars. If their
objector application is accepted - a lengthy process that requires
interviews, essays and letters from character witnesses - they can
either be reassigned to noncombatant duties or discharged.

Although the military is now operating under wartime orders under
which no discharges are permitted, it has been surprisingly willing
to release those claiming conscientious objector status, according to
the objectors and their lawyers.

The Army reports that it granted 5 conscientious objector discharges
this January, compared with 17 in all of 2002 and 9 in 2001. In
February, the Army received six new applications for conscientious
objector status, all still under review.

The Marine Corps says it discharged two members on conscientious
objection grounds in January and February this year, compared with
two in all of 2002. The Air Force received seven such applications in
the past six months, approving four and rejecting one. Two are still
under review. The Navy granted approximately 10 conscientious
objector discharges in 2001 and in 2002. So far this year it has
approved three and is considering three more.

Michael D. Sudbury, a former Army reservist in Sandy, Utah, was
discharged the day before his unit was deployed - the same day he
held a news conference to publicize his intention to apply for a
conscientious objector discharge.

"Forcing our way on these people in Iraq is not going to make the
world better," Mr. Sudbury says he told his superiors.

While the numbers of people who have received conscientious objector
status are small, representatives of peace groups, churches and
military support networks say that starting last fall they began
experiencing an increase in calls from members of the military
voicing moral concerns about the war.

Bill Galvin, counseling coordinator at the Center on Conscience and
War <http://www.nisbco.org/>, in Washington, said that before last
year, he might receive one or two such calls a month. Starting in
January, Mr. Galvin said, he began receiving one or two a day.

"A lot of the people who are calling now actually figured out some
time ago, even in basic training, that they had problems with being
part of violence or warfare," he said. "But they felt they made a
commitment, and didn't expect they were really going to go to war."
He added, "Suddenly they get orders to go to war, and that compromise
they should probably have never made is catching up with them."

Mr. Funk, the Marine reservist, says he shared his misgivings with
several military chaplains. He asked them what his Catholic faith had
to say about war. He says the chaplains told him he would soon adjust.

After basic training ended last November, he learned about
conscientious objection from the Internet and from relatives who he
said had always insisted that such a gentle young man should never
have enlisted in the Marine reserves.

He says he was in the process of writing his application in February
when his reserve company received orders to deploy. He did not report.

His lawyer, Stephen Collier, a member of the National Lawyer's Guild
Military Law Task Force <http://www.nlg.org/mltf/> in San Francisco,
said he expected that Mr. Funk would serve 30 days of punishment,
performing some kind of desk duty, before the Marine Corps would
process his application.

Mr. Collier said of his client: "He's someone that the recruiter made
a mistake on. He's not really fit for Marine Corps life."

<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0401-10.htm> &
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial/01OBJE.html>
*****