Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 22. maj 2004 / Time Line May 22, 2004
Version 3.005/22/2004
An Oildriven Immoral War
by Kurt Singer
These were the words of the 26 year old Florida National Guard
soldier who had served over 8 years in the armed forces. 6 month in
Iraq. Staff Sgt.Camilio Mejia went home to Miami on a furlough,
bitter and disappointed about this abominable war. He had led an
infantry squad and experienced plenty of actions. In an interview
with the New York Times he told the columnist Bob Herbert that he
had seen "the slaughter of Iraqi civilians."
Mejia had personally seen the mistreatments of prisoners, the
killing of children, the cruel deaths of American soldiers. He
accused glory hunting officers putting American units in needlessly
dangerous positions.
"Imagine being in the infantry in Ramadi like we were and you get
shot at it every day and you get mortared where you lived with
rocket propelled grenades and people were dying and getting wounded
and maimed every day. A lot of horrible things became
acceptable.'"Sgt. Mejia told more and more of the war horrors were
childre childer and women were killed as if Iraqis were not human
beings. The staff sergeant deserted. But when his unite returned
home he returned and asked to be treated as a conscientious
objector and be discharged. This request was denied and he faced a
military court. The jury of seven men and one woman. Most of them
had served in Iraq. They sentenced Staff Sergeant Mejia to one year
of hard labor, losing his rank and he received a dishonorable
discharge. Mejia was not allowed to present witnesses or references
to the legality of this war. All wars create atrocities,
conscientous objectors and soldiers whose conscience turns them
against the wars. Mejia was not an American citizen. He held dual
ctzenship of Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
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