- Originally published in The Guardian (London) - Final Edition March 19, 2005 Copyright 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
'They can't train you for the reality of Iraq. You can't have a mass
grave with dogs eating the people in it':
By Suzanne Goldenberg in Fort Stewart, Georgia
At the same time that Kevin Benderman's unit was called up for a second
tour in Iraq with the Third Infantry Division, two soldiers tried to
kill themselves and another had a relative shoot him in the leg.
Seventeen went awol or ran off to Canada, and Sergeant Benderman, whose
family has sent a son to every war since the American revolution,
defied his genes and nine years of military training and followed his
conscience.
As the division packed its
gear to leave Fort Stewart, Sgt Benderman applied for a discharge as a
conscientious objector - an act seen as a betrayal by many in a
military unit considered the heart of the US army, "the Walking Pride
of Uncle Sam".
Two years ago today, the
columns of the Third ID roared up from the Kuwaiti desert for the push
towards Baghdad. When the city fell, the marines controlled the
neighbourhoods on the east side of the Tigris and the Third ID had the
west. It was, according to the army command, an occasion for pride.
Some of the men and women who were there remain unconvinced. Like Sgt
Benderman, who served six months in Iraq at the start of the war, they
were scarred by their experience, and angry at being called again to
combat so soon.
They may not be part of
any organised anti-war movement, but the conscientious objectors,
runaways, and other irregular protesters suggest that, two years on,
the war is taking a heavy toll.
"They
can't train you for the reality. You can't have a mass grave with dogs
eating the people in it," Sgt Benderman told the Guardian. "It's not
like practising for a football game, or cramming for a test in college.
You can go out there and train, but until you actually experience war
first hand you don't know what it's like."
A large man in his uniform, with blue eyes and a southern drawl, the
40-year-old is every inch the soldier. He has spent nearly 10 years in
the army, signing up for a second stint in 2000 because he felt he had
not done his duty to his country. The war did away with that feeling,
with the sergeant horrified by Iraqi civilian deaths and the behaviour
of the young men he commanded, who he said treated war like bumping off
targets in a video game.
Unthinkable
"I didn't turn into the pope overnight. I am still Kevin Benderman, but I am trying to find a better way of living," he said.
Once such dissent would have been unthinkable - as would the growing
disquiet within the ranks of the US army as its forces rotate into Iraq
on second and even third tours. Open resistance remains relatively
rare. Only a handful of troops have filed conscientious objector
applications; Vietnam, which was fought by conscripts, produced 190,000
such petitions.
But the conscripts only
had one tour. Soldiers' advocates and peace activists believe the first
signs of opposition within the military could slowly grow - as it did
for Vietnam - turning disgruntled soldiers and their families into
powerful anti-war advocates. A number of Iraq veterans have begun to
speak out. The root causes for more widespread dissent are there.
Longer and repeat deployments have worn down regulars and reservists.
So has the rising toll, with more than 1,500 US soldiers dead and
11,000 wounded. Recruitment and re-enlistment rates are down -
especially for African-Americans, a 40% drop in the past five years - increasing the strain on the Pentagon.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 military personnel are in Iraq despite
serious medical conditions that should have ruled them out of combat,
according to the National Gulf War Resource Centre. The GI Rights
Hotline, which counsels troops, says it fielded 32,000 calls last year
from soldiers seeking an exit from the military, or suffering from
post-combat stress.
Others vote with
their feet. Last year the Pentagon admitted that 5,500 of its forces
had gone awol, although it claims many returned to their units after
resolving personal crises. Some abandoned the country altogether - like
Chris Cornell, a Third ID private. At 24, he had been in the military
for two years, joining up in search of a better life than in the Ozark
mountains of Arkansas. Army life had begun to pall - "because of the
crap that goes on" - when the division began to prepare for Iraq. He
didn't want to go. "I didn't sign up to kill people. I couldn't live
with myself," he told the Guardian. At first, he tried to get a medical
discharge, deliberately failing dozens of physical training tests.
Then, weeks before his unit's January 10 departure, his sergeant called
the troops in for a talk. "He got up there in front of the whole
battery and he told us we were going to Iraq, whether we liked it or
not."
Pte Cornell went home on leave and
consulted the activists he calls his adopted family. They suggested
Canada - terra incognita for a southerner like Pte Cornell - and he
landed in Toronto, jobless, sleeping in someone else's flat, and
seeking political asylum. He was the seventh US soldier to apply for
refugee status in Canada, and a half dozen more with Canadian parents
or spouses are claiming citizenship, according to Jeffrey House, a
Toronto lawyer handling many of the claims. But there could be hundreds
more who have gone to ground. "I believe there are a number of people
here illegally," he says. "No one would suspect them by their accent,
and so they just disappear."
Among those
who serve, resentment is high, fuelled by "stop loss" orders by which
the Pentagon hangs on to troops past their release date, and shortages
of armoured vehicles and protective gear. Emails and blogs from Iraq
regularly rail against officers and the war.
The high command does not want to hear them, soldiers' advocates say,
because it does not want to encourage dissent. When Sgt Benderman tried
to file his papers as a conscientious objector in December, his
commanding officer called him a coward. Last month he was ordered to
face a court martial for desertion. He could face seven years in prison.
Now, away from his unit in the war zone, Sgt Benderman waits for the
army to hear his case. Each morning he leaves his home in Hinesville,
Georgia, to report for 6.30am drill. Others in his situation have gone
underground, but Sgt Benderman views that option with distaste. So does
his wife, Monica, who says: "If you really believe in what you are
doing, then why run?"
Carl Webb, 39, a
member of the Texas National Guard, claims he didn't have a choice. His
protest is just as public as Sgt Benderman's - and even less
conventional. He has been awol since last August but the military
should not have any problems finding him. Mr Webb has posted his email
address, phone number, and several photos of himself on a website
setting out his opposition to the war
For
years, the military had been his one constant in an otherwise
anchorless life, and Mr Webb did stints in the regular army as well as
various guard units. But by last July, when he was a month away from
getting out, he got the call that he was being plucked from his unit to
serve with a tank company near Baghdad.
"It was a total surprise. Even my command said this is some kind of a
mistake, and I could file a hardship case," he told the Guardian. Mr
Webb thought about filing a conscientious objector application, but
decided he didn't fit the strict criteria. Now he is daring the
Pentagon to try to get him because he figures that would encourage
other opponents of the war.
"Most
soldiers obey their orders because they are afraid of what could happen
to them. They think, 'Oh, they are going to throw me in a dungeon, and
put shackles on me, and I'll never see the light of day,' or they fear
the isolation," he said.
"But just by being out there, I am going to give them ideas. I'm an example."
- Un-Volunteering: Troops Improvise to Find Way Out [more]