US Army Sergeant Defies Orders

[POA]

U.S. ARMY SERGEANT DEFIES ORDERS, REFUSES RE-DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ; TWO SOLDIERS ATTEMPT SUICIDE AT 2-7 INFANTRY, 17 GO AWOL
By Robert S. Finnegan, Managing Editor
Jan 11, 2005, 17:02

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Southeast Asia News
Robert S. Finnegan
Managing Editor
Southeast Asia News
[e-mail]
www.nrg.to/seanews
[phone]

SUBJECT CONTACT:

Sgt. Kevin Benderman
Ft. Stewart, GA
"Rock of the Marne"
[e-mail]
[phone]

STORY FOLLOWS:

Benderman Case sparks media feeding-frenzy as Army desperately initiates damage control measures

01/10/2005

Ft. Stewart, GA

"Rock of the Marne"

On Friday, January 7, 2005 Sergeant Kevin Benderman, stationed with the 2-7 Infantry Battalion at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, refused an order from the Command Sergeant Major of his unit Samuel Coston to deploy to Iraq and requested a General Courts-Martial.

Benderman, 40 is a combat veteran, having served one tour in Iraq in 2003 during which a Captain in his command ordered soldiers from Benderman’s outfit to fire on children throwing rocks at unit personnel. Having personally witnessed this and other illegal acts by military personnel during his tour, Benderman now says that under no circumstances will he participate further in the war in Iraq, a war Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan has labeled "illegal".

Benderman has applied for Conscientious Objector status. His commanders have not yet acted on his request, as required by Army regulations.

In further developments this weekend, it has been confirmed that Specialist J.R. Burt and Specialist David Beals, also of 2-7 attempted suicide rather than deploy to Iraq, and an additional seventeen soldiers in 2-7 Infantry Battalion have gone AWOL for the same reason. Army sources who have been granted anonymity because they feared retaliation stated that both Burt and Beals are being harassed and mistreated on the Psychiatric Ward of Winn Army Hospital by unit commanders and a civilian, Dr. Capp who in apparent violation of state law is reported as informing them of the harsh punishments they may expect should they refuse deployment. In addition, SFC Johnson, 2-7 platoon sergeant for Spec. Beals reportedly told him recently "…when I get you to Iraq, I’m going to get you killed," in the presence of several witnesses who say this incident was a catalyst in Beals’ attempted suicide.

Winn Army Hospital Public Affairs Officer Laurie Kemp refused to even confirm that the two Specialists had been admitted to the hospital.

The 2-7 Chaplain, Captain Matt Temple in a letter addressed to Benderman today stated that: "It is unfortunate that you have chosen the course of action you have taken. You should have had the moral fortitude to deploy with us and see me here in Kuwait to begin your CO application. To expect me to complete an interview with you within 48 hours of a major deployment was unreasonable and quite inconsiderate of my own time. I would have gladly helped you once we got here. As an NCO in the US ARMY, I expected a greater display of maturity from you. Furthermore, for you to have media personnel contacting me at my personal email address without first acquiring my permission was very unprofessional of you. You should be ashamed of the way you have conducted yourself. I certainly am ashamed of you. I hope you will see your misconduct as an opportunity to upgrade your character and moral behavior for your own good and the good of your fellowman." Benderman said the letter disgusted him, stating "Nothing in my career as a professional soldier has prepared me to respond to something like that letter from the Chaplain."

Benderman’s congressional representative, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has written a letter to his Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Todd Wood expressing her concern for Benderman’s rights and suggesting that Wood designate him as non-deployable to Iraq.

Support for Sergeant Benderman has been overwhelming, says his wife, Monica. "We are being swamped for interview requests by the media," she said on Monday.

Benderman has also garnered the support of an American icon and war hero, Colonel James "Bo" Gritz, USA (Ret.), who profiled Benderman for three days running on his radio show "Freedom Call". Gritz has labeled previous charges by the Army in connection with Benderman’s refusal to deploy and statements to the press "ridiculous," savaging the officers of 2-7, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush on the air while calling Benderman "a hero" and his immediate superiors "weenies." One of the most decorated soldiers in U.S. Army history, Gritz led the only raid on a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War at Son Tay, North Vietnam.

On Monday afternoon, Benderman says he is still in the dark as to what the Army plans for him. "I have learned nothing from anyone in my chain of command informing me on the disposition of my case, despite my attempts to communicate with them. Perhaps tomorrow," he said.

Telephone calls to 2-7 Public Affairs Officer Lt.Col. Kent and the Pentagon requesting comment on Benderman, Burt, Beals and the additional 2-7 AWOL cases were unanswered by press time.

Southeast Asia News Managing Editor Robert S. Finnegan is an internationally published investigative reporter and former Marine Corps Non-Commissioned Officer. Working most recently as a Senior Editor and lead investigator on the Bali Bombings for The Jakarta Post, he may be reached at [e-mail].

Southeast Asia News grants copyright release for further publication at additional news outlets.

www.nrg.to/seanews/main.html

[Moses]

Soldier explains refusal to return to Iraq

Decision came from long deliberation[/b]

Monday, January 17, 2005 Posted: 7:58 AM EST (1258 GMT)

Sgt. Kevin Benderman



HINESVILLE, Georgia (AP) -- A young girl clutching her arm blackened by burns, dogs feeding off bodies in mass graves -- the images still haunt Sgt. Kevin Benderman 15 months after he came home from Iraq.[/size]

Witnessing the brutal reality of war, Benderman stunned his commanders when he sought a discharge as a conscientious objector after 10 years in the Army.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the sergeant said he never grasped the misery that war inflicts on civilians as well as combatants until he saw it all firsthand.

"Some people may be born a conscientious objector, but sometimes people realize through certain events in their lives that the path they're on is the wrong one," Benderman said. "The idea was: Do I really want to stay in an organization where the sole purpose is to kill?"

Benderman's decision -- choosing conscience over his commitment to fellow troops -- has meant bearing the insults.

An officer called him a coward. His battalion chaplain shamed him in an e-mail from Kuwait. That's because Benderman, whose unit just deployed for a second combat tour in Iraq, refused to return to war.

Benderman, 40, filed notice in December, and his timing could hardly have been worse for the Army. The Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division began deploying its 19,000 soldiers this month.

Benderman's unit, the 3rd Forward Support Battalion, was leaving for Kuwait on January 5. When commanders ordered him to deploy while they processed his objector application, he refused to show up for his flight.

He said he has his reasons, reflecting on time in Iraq.

Benderman told of bombed out homes and displaced Iraqis living in mud huts and drinking from mud puddles; mass graves in Khanaqin near the Iranian border where dogs fed off bodies of men, women and children.

He recalled his convoy passing a girl, no older than 10, on the roadside clutching a badly injured arm. Benderman said his executive officer refused to help because troops had limited medical supplies.

"Her arm was burned, third-degree burns, just black. And she was standing there with her mother begging for help," Benderman said. "That was an eye opener to seeing how insane it really is."

Now Benderman, a mechanic who has been reassigned to a non-deploying rear detachment unit, could face a court-martial. Fort Stewart officials have not decided whether to charge him.

Separately, he must convince commanders he is morally opposed to war in all forms, as Army regulations define conscientious objection, despite his lengthy military service and previous combat tour.

"If he went to Iraq and then comes back and says, `I'm now opposed to war,' the issue is are you opposed to all wars or just this one you don't want to go back to?" said Mark Stevens, a military defense lawyer and retired Marine Corps judge advocate. "He wasn't opposed to war two years ago, why is he opposed to it now?"

Benderman said the officer who took his objector notice dismissed him as a coward. His unit's chaplain offered little encouragement.

"You should have had the moral fortitude to deploy with us and see me here in Kuwait to begin your CO application," Army Chaplain Matt Temple said in a recent e-mail to Benderman. "You should be ashamed of the way you have conducted yourself. I certainly am ashamed of you."

Benderman's wife, Monica, said her husband hinted that he had doubts about taking part in the war in a letter he sent home that referenced scholars' belief that Iraq was home to the biblical Garden of Eden.

"He said, `Here I am in the Garden of Eden, and what am I doing here with a gun?"' she said.

Raised a Southern Baptist in Tennessee, Benderman keeps an open Bible on his living room table but said he's "more spiritual than religious." After going to Iraq, he picked up the Quran and was struck by the similarities between Islam and Christianity.

He returned in September 2003 after serving eight months in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas. As a mechanic who fixes Bradley armored vehicles, he said he never fired a weapon in combat.

Still, Benderman began questioning whether he could return to a war zone when he transferred to Fort Stewart in October 2003. He said he never mentioned his doubts to soldiers in his new unit, but trained with them for a year as they prepared for a second tour. By December, he had even packed his clothes and equipment for shipping overseas.

Benderman acknowledged that waiting more than a year, until right before deployment, may seem "out of the blue." But he insisted his decision came from long deliberation, not desperation.

"People say, `You're abandoning these soldiers that depend on you,' and so that weighs on you," he said. "But what's worse? Going over there and participating in war, or maybe doing something that can help people figure out that you don't have to go to war?"

[Moses]

 <br>

A Matter of Conscience

by Sgt. Kevin Benderman

Having watched and observed life from the standpoint of a soldier for ten years of my life, I felt there was no higher honor than to serve my country and defend the values that established this country. My family has a history of serving this country dating back to the American Revolution and I felt that to continue in that tradition was the honorable thing to do.

As I went through the process which led to my decision to refuse deployment to Iraq for the second time, I was torn between thoughts of abandoning the soldiers that I serve with, or following my conscience which tells me: war is the ultimate in destruction and waste of humanity.

Thoughts that we could, and should, consider better ways to solve our differences with other people in the world have crossed my mind on numerous occasions. And this was the driving force that made me refuse deployment to Iraq a second time. Some people may say I am doing so out of fear of combat; I am not going to tell you that the thought of going back to that place isn’t scary, but that is not the reason for my decision to not return.

I want people to know that the longer I thought about just how stupid the concept of war really is, the stronger I felt about not participating in war. Why do we tell our children to not solve their differences with violence, then turn around and commit the ultimate in violence against people in another country who have nothing to do with the political attitudes of their leaders?

Having read numerous books on the subject of war and having heard all the arguments for war, I have come to the conclusion that there are no valid arguments for the destructive force of war. People are destroyed, nations are destroyed, and yet we continue on with war. The young people that I went with to the combat zone looked at it like it was a video game they played back in their childhood.

When you contemplate the beauty of the world around us and the gifts we have been given, you have to ask yourself, “Is this what humanity is meant to do, wage war against one another?” Why can’t we teach our children not to hate or to not be afraid of someone else just because they are different from us? Why must it be considered honorable to train young men and women to look through the sights of a high-powered rifle and to kill another human being from 300 meters away?

Consider, if you will, the positive things that could be accomplished without war in our lives; prescription medication that is affordable for seniors; college grants that are available for high schools seniors; I could name a list of reasons not to waste our resources on war. The most important being to let the children of the world learn war no more.

I’ve received e-mails from people who said that I was a coward for not going to war, but I say to them that I have already been, so I do not have anything to prove to anyone any more. What is there to prove anyway, that I can kill someone I do not even know and has never done anything to me? What is in that concept that anyone could consider honorable?

I first realized that war was the wrong way to handle things in this or any other country when I went to the war zone and saw the damage that it causes. Why must we resort to violence when things do not go our way? Where is the logic of that? I have felt that there are better ways to handle our business than to bomb each other into oblivion. When you are on the water in a boat and you have a chance to see dolphins playing with each other as they go about their business, you realize that if they can live without war then humanity should be able to as well.

Can’t we teach our children to leave war behind in history where it belongs? We have come to realize that slavery was an obsolete institution and we realized that human sacrifice was an obsolete institution and we left them behind us. When are we going to have the same enlightened attitude about war?

I look at my stepchildren and realize that war has no place with me in giving them what they need to survive the trials and tribulations of early adulthood. And if you look at all the time soldiers lose in the course of fighting wars such as birthdays and anniversaries, their children going to the senior prom and college graduations, and other things which can never be replaced, then you have to come to the understanding that war steals more from people than just their sense of humanity, it also steals some of that humanity from their family.

I have learned from first-hand experience that war is the destroyer of everything that is good in the world, it turns our young into soulless killers and we tell them that they are heroes when they master the “art” of killing. That is a very deranged mindset in my opinion. It destroys the environment, life, and the resources that could be used to create more life-advancing endeavors.

War should be left behind us; we should evolve to a higher mindset even if it means going against what most people tell us in this country, such as that we can never stop fighting with other people in the world. I have made the decision to not participate in war any longer and some people in this country cannot comprehend that concept but to me it is simple. I have chosen not to take part in war and it was easy to come to that decision.

I cannot tell anyone else how to live his or her life but I have determined how I want to live mine – by not participating in war any longer, as I feel that it is stupid and that it is against everything that is good about the world.

January 18, 2005

Kevin Benderman [send him mail is an Army Sergeant in the 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, GA.

Copyright 2005 Kevin Benderman
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www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/benderman1.html
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[Moses]

"GOPUSA", which attacked Benderman, and its associated propaganda orgs: Talon News and "Mens News Daily" had their reporter accepted into the White House Press Corps, though he had no credentials and had been rejected by the journalistic oversight body. It has since been discovered that he is connected to gay porn, specializing esp. in military fetishes. See: mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/02/gannon-quits-after-blogger-inquiry.html. He had been given access to top secret information, including the identity of under cover CIA agents.

---

www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2005/rmb_0118p.shtml



Objecting to the Objector
By Robin Mullins Boyd
January 18, 2005

The Savannah Morning News recently ran a front page article about another one of the "poor" soldiers that has been so damaged by our military system that he has filed for conscientious objector status. The article stated that Sgt. Kevin Benderman had served one tour in Iraq but refused to serve another. He filed for conscientious objector status just weeks before his unit was deployed to Iraq.

The article got me thinking about objecting to things that I disagreed with. If a soldier can claim offense to his conscience, then what about us average citizens? So here is my list of items that I am filing conscientious objector status to:



I object to any soldier that voluntarily enlists for military service then whines that he has to fight in a war. No one held Mr. Benderman's feet to the fire to enlist. He was not drafted or ordered to sign up. Serving in the military is a choice.



I object to any soldier that has received military benefits for 9 years but when it comes to fulfilling his duties, he says no. What other profession can you get away with collecting pay but refusing the work?

I object to a system that allows a soldier who "objects" to the War in Iraq to receive an in-country assignment while his case is reviewed. Meanwhile the members of his unit are fighting in a war. The guilt factor alone would drive me crazy. The people that he worked with day to day are now in harm's way while he sits at his base.

I object to someone that thinks that all our military does is teach kids to kill. Our military has kept this country safe for 200 years. The gangbangers on the streets did not receive military training but they sure know how to kill.

I object to treating someone that refuses to do his or her job as thoughtful and insightful. I don't recall any boss giving me an "attaboy" for not completing an assignment.

I object to a soldier that decides he is an objector just weeks before he is deployed with one of our elite fighting units, the Third Infantry Division. Especially when for months it has been public knowledge that the 3rd I.D. was scheduled to be deployed.

I object to a newspaper in a military town like Savannah giving front-page coverage to someone that denigrates the military's service. The community would be better served with articles on the soldiers that are returning to Iraq for their second term and fighting for our country.

I object to a story about a conscientious objector making the news while the soldiers in our community are being actively deployed. What about the family members of the soldiers leaving? What about those that have lost family members in the war? What about those working FOR the support of our soldiers?



Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the service that Mr. Benderman gave during his first deployment. But he has tarnished that service with his pitiful excuse for objecting. "Seeing kids drink out of puddles" and "buildings destroyed by bombs" offended his sensibilities? Too Bad. My sensibilities were offended after September 11, 2001 when I saw buildings destroyed by terrorists and the tears of our citizens forming puddles.

Instead of broadcasting the plight of this soldier (and I use the term soldier loosely here), we should be focusing on the sacrifices that our soldiers have given for our country. After all, if it was not for our soldiers, there would not be a country for Mr. Benderman to object fighting for.

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Robin Mullins Boyd was born and raised in Pooler, GA. She has been a Registered Nurse for 23 years with her primary focus in the Home Health field. Robin is not bashful about expressing her opinions - as evidenced by the 12 Letters to the Editor published in the Savannah Morning News over the past year. She has also published op-ed pieces on America Online's Opinion Page and several other Internet magazines. Robin's first book, Warmongers And Traitors - Thoughts on the War with Iraq, was just released by PublishAmerica. Robin lives in Guyton, GA with her husband, Herby Boyd. She has two children, Tony and Jennifer, and 2 stepsons, Aaron and Chris.

[nana]

Here's a copy of the e-mail I'd sent to him yesterday and my hope is that he receives far more supportive emails than the other kind:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1/17/05 7:12 pm

Dear Kevin,

Thank you.

And to those who say you are a coward, I say Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most courageous people to have walked this earth. The courage to face violence with non-violence is awe inspiring and your courage to really look at what is being done to human beings, as well as to the planet is, in my opinion, a shining example of true courage.

If peace was the easy road we'd have it already.

It takes far more courage to do what you have done than to pull the trigger and kill another human being.

My grateful prayers go with you and my sincere desire that many more will find the wisdom and courage to follow your example of how to become a truly humane being.

Thank you,

[Moses]

Army Chaplain Matt Temple

-- Wow. You couldn't even have invented a name better than this for a "Chaplain" who wrote the objector that he should have had the "moral fortitude" to leave his family and ship out to Kuwait while they "processed" his application.

[Moses]

Military Strategists agree with Benderman, and he with them. Military strategists also believe that GOP "patriots" like Ms. Boyd, are the downfall of America. The rest of America needs to wake up and smell the coffee-- our only hope is regime change, and Benderman is brave to step forward for the sake of his country, and tell the truth about war.
 <br>How Americans Were Seduced by War

by Paul Craig Roberts



Americans have been betrayed.

.... It is too late to be rescued from catastrophe in Iraq, but perhaps if Americans can understand how such a grand mistake was made they can avoid repeating it. In a forthcoming book from Oxford University Press, The New American Militarism, Andrew J. Bacevich writes that we can avoid future disasters by understanding how our doctrines went wrong and by returning to the precepts laid down by our Founding Fathers, men of infinitely more wisdom than those currently holding reins of power.

Bacevich, West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, and soldier for 23 years, is a true conservative. He is an expert on US military strategy and a professor at Boston University. He describes how civilian strategists – especially Albert Wohlstetter and Andrew Marshall – not military leaders, transformed a strategy of deterrence that regarded war as a last resort into a strategy of naked aggression. The resulting "marriage of a militaristic cast of mind with utopian ends" has "committed the United States to waging an open-ended war on a global scale."

The greatest threat to the US is not terrorists but the neoconservative belief, to which President Bush is firmly committed, that American security and well-being depend on US global hegemony and impressing US values on the rest of the world. This belief resonates with a patriotic public. Bacevich writes, "in the aftermath of a century filled to overflowing with evidence pointing to the limited utility of armed force and the dangers inherent in relying excessively on military power, the American people have persuaded themselves that their best prospect for safety and salvation lies with the sword."

If Americans persist in these misconceptions, America will "share the fate of all those who in ages past have looked to war and military power to fulfill their destiny. We will rob future generations of their rightful inheritance. We will wreak havoc abroad. We will endanger our security at home. We will risk the forfeiture of all that we prize."

Bacevich understands that the problem is not how to deal with terrorism but how to deal with the hubris, laden with catastrophe, that America is God’s instrument for bringing history to its predetermined destination. Being assigned such an exalted role creates the delusion that America’s virtue is unquestionable and its use of preemptive coercion is infallible, delusion that led to the "cakewalk war" that would entrench Democracy in the Middle East and have the troops home in 90 days.

American hubris, which flows so freely from President Bush’s mouth, explains why half the US population yawns over the US slaughter of Iraqi civilians and communist-style torture of Iraqi prisoners. The "cakewalk war" is now almost two years old and has claimed 10 percent of the US occupation force as casualties. Yet, the delusion persists that the US is prevailing in Iraq.

The new American militarism would be inconceivable, Bacevich writes, "were it not for the support offered by several tens of millions of evangelicals." Books written about "militant Islam" could equally describe militant evangelical Christianity. How did a Christian doctrine of love and peace become an apology for war?

Bacevich explains that evangelicals, aghast at Vietnam era protests of America’s war against "godless communism," turned to the military as the repository of traditional American virtues. For evangelicals, endtimes doctrines converged eschatology with national security. Prophecies merged America’s fate with Israel’s. Islam inherited the role of godless communism and became the target of the war against evil. America emerged with the "same immensely elastic permission to use force previously accorded to Israel."

America’s security and the well-being of the world are threatened by America’s unwarranted belief in the efficacy of force. War is ungovernable: "The shattered reputations of generals and statesmen who presumed to bring it under control litter the twentieth century. On those rare occasions when war has yielded a seemingly decisive outcome, as in 1918 or 1945, it has done so only after exacting a staggering price from victor and vanquished alike. Even then, in resolving one set of problems, ‘good’ wars have fostered resentments or created temptations, leading as often as not to further conflict."

The new American militarism has abandoned the Founding Fathers, deserted the Constitution, and unrestrained the executive. War is a first resort. Militarism is inconsistent with globalism and with American ideals. It will end in abject failure.

The world is a vast place. The US has demonstrated that it cannot impose its will on a tiny part known as Iraq. American realism may yet reassert itself, dispel the fog of delusion, cleanse the body politic of the Jacobin spirit and lead the world by good example. But this happy outcome will require regime change in the US.

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Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

Copyright © 2005 Creators Syndicate

Paul Craig Roberts Archives
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[Moses]

Catching Flack
A Military Wife Speaks


Monica Benderman


A soldier's wife, Monica Benderman of Hinesville, Georgia, used to be admired. But not anymore. In December 2004, facing a second tour of duty in Iraq, her husband, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, applied for conscientious objector status—and was promptly charged with desertion. Read Kevin's story  here, and Monica's, here: <br>
For the past several weeks, my husband, Kevin, and I have answered questions from reporters, and other interested citizens from almost every state in the union, and about eight foreign countries. After all of these interviews, I have a few questions and comments of my own.

What’s gone wrong when a man and his wife receive phone calls and emails from all over their country asking them to explain themselves, calling them cowards, wondering if they have ever read the Bible or studied the scripture, all because that man has chosen to speak out against war and violence, and his wife has chosen to stand with him?

What’s gone wrong when a man's mental stability is doubted and his morality is brought into question by a chaplain (a supposed man of God), all because he has decided he cannot use a weapon to kill another person for any reason?

What’s gone wrong when a man can walk into a military recruiting office, sign on the dotted line and find himself in a war zone two months later, without one question directed toward his sanity?

What’s gone wrong when war is glorified, and fighting for peace is seen as cowardly?

People ask how my husband arrived at his decision. They are amazed that after all his years in the military he has come to the conclusion that he can no longer bear a weapon and go to war against another man..

People want to know if it was stress or PTSD which caused him to change his mind. They want to know what terrible things he saw that made him make such a drastic change. People want to know if there was thunder and lightning, an awakening, an epiphany. There was no bright light. There were no angels, no mighty bolt of thunder. There was only reality and facing the music with eyes wide open…<br>
War—all war—is wrong. War brings nothing but death and destruction. War takes away all humanity, not only from the people who die, but also from the people who do the killing. War is insanity…<br>
One man has stopped killing. Hope for more to do the same.

[Moses]

  Saturday, July 09, 2005  
 

Published on Friday, July 8, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
One Soldier’s Fight to Legalize Morality
by Monica Benderman
 
On July 28, 2005, in a small non-descript courtroom on Ft. Stewart, Georgia, a Courts Martial is scheduled to begin. Again. One Army NCO who decided that he had no choice but to make a conscious choice NOT to return to war is being put on trial for caring about humanity.

This soldier fulfilled his commitment, he kept his promise to his enlisted contract, and when ordered to deploy to Iraq at the start of the invasion, he went, not because he wanted to “kill Iraqis” or “destroy terrorist cells,” but because he wanted the soldiers he served with to come home safely. He returned knowing that war is wrong, the most dehumanizing creation of humanity that exists. He saw war destroy civilians, innocent men, women and children. He saw war destroy homes, relationships and a country. He saw this not only in the country that was invaded, but he saw this happening to the invading country as well – and he knew that the only way to save those soldiers was for people to no longer participate in war. Sgt. Kevin Benderman is a Conscientious Objector to war, and the Army is mad.

Sgt. Kevin Benderman, after serving one tour of duty in Iraq, filed for Conscientious Objector status, his Constitutional right. His commander refused to accept his application and one called him a coward. One chaplain was ashamed of his lack of moral fortitude, another, of higher rank, testified to the true sincerity of Sgt. Benderman’s beliefs, in writing. A military intelligence officer decided that he knew matters of the soul better than a man of God, and recommended to deny the CO claim. Five commissioned officers who had never met Sgt. Benderman agreed with the “intelligent officer” and the claim was denied, twice.

More than two weeks after my husband was placed in the Rear Detachment unit here at Ft. Stewart, charges of Missing Movement and Desertion were filed against him, even though he has never missed a single day of duty in almost ten years. At the first Courts Martial proceedings, the investigative hearing was over turned. According to the judge’s decision, the presiding officer had shown implied bias toward Sgt. Benderman, and a new hearing was ordered. As the session adjourned, the same command that brought the first charges were marching up the aisle in the courtroom to file a new charge, larceny, against Sgt. Benderman. The command that brought the charge, had erroneously ordered combat pay to be paid to Sgt. Benderman, along with 7 other soldiers in their unit. Rather than accept their responsibility for the error, these leaders chose to punish Sgt. Benderman for the mistake, and have yet to discipline any of the remaining soldiers for the officers’ gaffe.

The new investigating officer strongly recommended dismissing this larceny charge, but the convening authority, Ft. Stewart’s garrison commander, pressed on and filed the charges anyway, along with desertion and missing movement. The Courts Martial is scheduled to begin on July 28. The games began in January.

At the conclusion of the first hearing, I returned to the courtroom briefly for some things I had forgotten. The lights were dimmed, and no one was there. This small dark room, vintage WW II, had a reverent calm. Desks and chairs sat waiting, slightly turned, empty jurist panel, attorney’s podium – the stage had been set. I look back on it now, and the feeling is strangely surreal.

Last week we learned that the United States Supreme Court allows itself to keep the Ten Commandments hanging on the walls of its chambers, as a testimony to another form of law. The guardian of the Constitution of our country, presiding over the human rights of our people, maintains that the Ten Commandments, religious context aside, represent a form of law that is powerful enough to occupy a place in its chambers.

In a small, quiet courtroom, on the Ft. Stewart military installation, the stage is set. One soldier who, after firsthand experience with the destructive force of war, decided to take the Ten Commandments at their word – “Thou Shall Not Kill” – and use the rights given to him to declare his conscious objection to war, to no longer be in a position to voluntarily have to kill another human being, is now on trial for not wanting to kill.

The Army has removed itself so completely from its moral responsibility, that its representatives are willing to openly demand, in a court of law, that they be allowed to regain “positive control over this soldier” by finding him guilty of crimes he did not commit, and put him in jail – a prisoner of conscience, for daring to obey a moral law.

It is “hard work” to face the truth, and it is scary when people who are not afraid to face it begin to speak out. Someone once said that my husband’s case is a question of morality over legality. I pray that this country has not gone so far over the edge that the two are so distinctly different that we can tell them apart.

A sixteen year old in New York, was charged with involuntary manslaughter yesterday for stabbing another teen in the chest twice, over a computer game. There is no question of why. He broke a law – a legal, MORAL law – “Thou Shall Not Kill.”

After seeing war firsthand, Sgt. Kevin Benderman chose to follow a legal, MORAL law – “Thou Shall Not Kill.” A form of law significant enough to be represented on the walls of our Supreme Court. The US Army cannot let him go. I have to ask – “WHY?”

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Monica Bendermen is the wife of Sgt. Kevin Benderman. Kevin is stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. He has served on combat tour in Iraq. After seeing war firsthand, he made the decision to file for Conscientious Objector status in December, 2004. His command refused the request, and filed charges of Missing Movement and Desertion against him. They have since added a charge of Larceny. Sgt. Benderman is scheduled to face a second attempt at Courts Martial for these charges on July 28, and Ft. Stewart. She can be reached at: [e-mail].

For more information visit: www.BendermanDefense.org.