Refusing to serve: More soldiers objecting to war

By Donna Jones
Santa Cruz Sentinel Staff Writer

On paper, it sounds like a great plan — especially to someone not quite out of his teens. Join the military, get money for college, gain independence, be a man.

But Pablo Paredes, Robert Zabala, Camilo Mejia [pictured above] and Agustin Aguayo — four young men who became war resisters while serving in the military — said when they enlisted, there was a lot they still had to learn.

The four men spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people at the First Presbyterian Church on Monday.

"It's seductive," said Zabala, a 23-year-old UC Santa Cruz graduate who won a court order for his release from the Marines in April. "You join because that's what it means to be a man, to pay back your debt to society. People don't join the military because they want to take people's lives"

But the brutality of boot camp convinced Zabala that he couldn't serve, and he filed for conscientious objector status when the training was complete.

For former staff sgt. Camilo Mejia, the awareness of his moral antipathy to war took longer. He enlisted at 19, and had finished his three and half year enlistment in the Army and was just weeks from completing a subsequent nearly five-year term with the Florida National Guard when he received word that under the military's stop loss program he'd have to stay in until 2031.

In 2003, Mejia, now 31, was deployed to Iraq. There he said his platoon killed more unarmed civilians than combatants, but there was no time to consider right from wrong. The idea was to survive, he said, in a place where "the next minute of my life could be my last" Only when he returned home did he have the chance to consider his conscience. He applied for CO status, went AWOL for five months and served time in jail after he turned himself in.

Reached Monday afternoon by telephone, U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Tallman said there's been a "marked increase" in conscientious objector applications from soldiers since 2001. But the numbers, which have hovered around 60 annually in the past few years, are miniscule when compared to the 1 million soldiers serving on active duty or in the Army Reserves or National Guard.

"The nation is at war and the vast, vast majority of our soldiers serve honorably in and out of combat," said Tallman in a follow-up e-mail.

Paredes, a former Navy petty officer, disputed the Army's figures on resisters, saying the counseling hot line he staffs has received 40,000 calls. Many apply for CO status, but get discouraged in the face of delays and intimidation, Paredes said, adding the military definition is very narrow.

Army regulations permit release from service or a non-combatant assignment for soldiers who decline to serve based on "religious or deeply held moral or ethical" grounds. They also must oppose all war.

Contact Donna Jones at djones@santacruzsentinel.com.

Applications for

CO status in U.S. Army

Year Approved/Denied

2001 18/5

2002 17/6

2003 31/29

2004 30/30

2005 23/38

2006 33/9*

* Jan. 1-Sept. 30

SOURCE: U.S. Army