"When I hear my sergeants talking about slashing people's throats," he said, crying openly,...

[Sapphire Blue]

... "if I'm not a conscientious objector, what am I when I'm feeling all this pain when people talk about violence?"

When a US soldier in Iraq won't soldier
What does the Army do with a private who can't be persuaded to load his gun?
By Mary Wiltenburg | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 13, 2007 edition


Agustín Aguayo joined the US Army to support his family.
He claims to be a conscientious objector.
The Army convicted him of desertion.

Mary Wiltenburg


WÜRZBURG, GERMANY - No one looked comfortable at the sentencing hearing. Not family and friends who packed the US military courtroom's straight-backed benches. Not the rookie Army prosecutor in stiff dress greens who flushed with every "Your Honor." Not Judge R. Peter Masterton, whose usually animated face was now grave.

And not the convicted deserter – Army medic Agustín Aguayo – on the stand in a US military court in central Germany last March, pleading for understanding.

"I'm sorry for the trouble my conscience has caused my unit," Private 1st Class Aguayo said, his voice thick with emotion. "I tried to obey the rules, but in the end {the problem} was at the very core of my being."

Colonel Masterton, a veteran military judge, stared down at his bench. The defense wanted him to free this man of conscience. The prosecution asked that he put the coward away for two years to show other soldiers that "they are not fools for fulfilling their obligation."

Aguayo craned to face the judge. "When I hear my sergeants talking about slashing people's throats," he said, crying openly, "if I'm not a conscientious objector, what am I when I'm feeling all this pain when people talk about violence?"

Next door in the press room, where reporters crowded to watch the proceedings on bleached, closed-circuit TVs, a soldier guarding the door wiped tears from his face.


Continued @ http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0813/p20s01-usmi.html?page=1

Previous thread: US Army struggles with soldier who won't pull the trigger: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1587452

[Shine]

1. Powerful stuff

I commend the courage of that young man to be true to himself. :thumbsup:

[shance]

2. Thank you SB for posting this.

Wonderful piece.

[redqueen]

3. If only the soldiers who were asked to torture prisoners had such a conscience. n/t

[w8liftinglady]

4. thank you,SB.My son fights these demons as well

[Sapphire Blue]

6. ..

:hug: w8liftinglady, my heart goes out to both you & your son.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I don't care what the military apologists say,

the "must follow orders unless Congress declares the war illegal or else it's bad for unit discipline" crowd.

This young man is a hero.

May there be so many who take that stance that the military can no longer function in Iraq.

There is no shame in refusing to participate in war crimes.

Whatever the more naive recruits think they are doing, they are participating in one long, protracted war crime, and all power to those who come to their senses and say, "I won't."

I hope that more and more of them refuse to fight. Maybe they will have the courage that our timid, compromised Congressional Dems have failed to show.

[sanskritwarrior]

8. A court martial sounds about right

Now if he applied for conscientious obector status prior to the deployment then he should receive an honorable discharge and be allowed to go home. If however he decided once he got to Iraq "he wasn't gonna fight the war no more" he deserves a cell for dereliction of duty.

[Sapphire Blue]

9. Did you read the rest of the article & the previous thread?

More from the OP article...

In February 2004, on the eve of his Iraq deployment, Aguayo confided to Helga, who had joined him in Germany with their 8-year-old daughters, that he wasn't willing to kill, even in self-defense. She was alarmed. She searched for help online, and found a story about a marine who had refused to serve in Iraq. They read it together; some of the words were new to them.

"I had never heard the term 'conscientious objector,' which is embarrassing," she says. They Googled it, and called the hot-line number that came up. Volunteers explained the application process, and Aguayo, deploying in two days, hurried one together.

(snip)

For his 12-month tour, Aguayo refused to carry a loaded weapon. His medical duties didn't require one, but dangerous patrols in Saddam Hussein's hometown did. Out of consideration for his beliefs, superiors looked the other way as he hoisted an empty rifle. When he told Helga, she was appalled at the danger he was putting himself – and others – in. "I said: You can't do this. You have a family. You have to come back," she says.

In August 2004, Aguayo's CO application was denied...


http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0813/p20s01-usmi.html

And an excerpt from the previous thread...

Her husband, Army Spc. Agustín Aguayo, hurried around their military base apartment in central Germany that afternoon, under orders to assemble his battle gear. Two-and-a-half years earlier, in February 2004, the medic had applied to leave the Army as a conscientious objector (CO), someone whose beliefs forbid him to participate in war. While his claim was being evaluated, Aguayo served a year in Iraq with an unloaded weapon; when the claim was rejected, he sued for another review.

That legal process was under way on Sept. 1, 2006, the afternoon Aguayo's unit assembled to begin its second Iraq tour...

Link to the article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p20s01-usmi.html

Link to the previous thread:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1587452

[sanskritwarrior]

10. Hmmmm

need more information, still leaning towards a court martial.........

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Yeah, of course you would.

:eyes:

[SayWhatYo]

11. I always thought people who have such a hard time adpating to army life usually washout of traning..

Guess I was wrong?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Well, if your country is not at war, you may spend your entire career...

...without ever having to point a gun at anyone. I suppose many who think they can, actually can't, but will never know because chance will spare them the decision.

I see from the article he joined right after 9/11. I bet he thought he'd only shoot evil terrorists who want to shoot back at you, but gradually saw things morphing into something evil.

[many a good man]

12. I K&R this without even reading it

First time I've ever done that. No need to ask me why.