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06/24/2004: "Why is there still a conscientious objector status?"

Camilo Mejia is currently serving a one-year prison term for desertion. He was busted down to Private and given a dishonorable discharge after refusing to return to Iraq while home on a two-week leave. He was a member of the Florida National Guard. His family has been holding a vigil at Fort Sill while a military hearings officer heard testimony to see whether or not Mr. Mejia should be given conscientious objector status.

Somehow being granted conscientious objector status in an all volunteer military just doesn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t that have been dropped along with the draft? The job of the military is to protect and that may mean killing or maiming the other side. Isn’t that known up front, before you sign on for a government paycheck?

Meanwhile up north, the Canadians are holding benefit concerts to raise cash for the two deserters up there who are waiting to find out if they will be given political asylum. I hope they are denied and join Mr. Mejia as cellmates soon. They are a disgrace to those who wear their uniforms proudly and serve with honor.

Mr. Mejia is 28 years old and held the rank of Sergeant. I’d speculate that he has 10-years of service mostly during peacetime. It was a good gig while it lasted, but the commitment you make to the service should not be taken lightly because the stakes are too high for everyone involved. He objects because he says he saw prisoners mistreated at a prison in Iraq where he worked processing detainees and that’s why he would not return. If that’s true and not a convenient excuse after the disproportionate media coverage of Abu Gharib, he had two choices. Walk away and face charges of desertion or report for duty and make sure the abuse was stopped like the soldier who reported the abuse at Abu Gharib.

From this outsider’s point of view, Mr. Mejia should spend the next year serving his sentence and learning the lesson that his decisions carry consequences both when he swore to defend his country and when he chose to walk away.

To those who wake up today and report for duty and fight to keep us safe. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU and be safe.

Replies: 5 Comments

As a Vietnam Veteran, I agree with you. The CO status makes no sense with volunteers. The only possible application would be a genuine conversion to a CO while in the service, becaues once you are in, it is no longer voluntary. But allowing such conversions to have effect is potentially very damaging to the forces. I would argue that the way to treat a CO is to put him in jail as a deserter.

There is still a draft system. If it is ever used, then the CO issue comes up again.

However, I have a friend who refused service because he was against the Vietnam War. To be a CO he would have had to be against all war, which he wasn't (and was honest enough to say so). He went to jail, which he was willing to do given his beliefs. I honor him, and have told him so. He didn't skate out - he backed up his beliefs with the willingness to suffer for them.

In any case, a CO must be against all war.

This dude needs to spend his time in the stockade (a much less fun place than jail, if US Navy brigs are a clue).

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