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War on One's Conscience
A Citizen and a Soldier's Relationshp to an Unjust War
By Simon Fitzgerald and Pablo Paredes

Ever Since the invasion of Iraq, I have tried to stay in touch with friends sent to war. This became especially important after the death of David Branning in the re-invasion of Fallujah this past November. He was a former Baltimore resident and the best friend of my highschool running buddy.

My interest in the “Citizen Soldier” brought to my attention a Naval officer facing court martial next week for refusing on moral grounds to serve in the Iraq war, Pablo Paredes. He recently told me
“It has been months since I publicly refused to assist in destroying Iraq. I did so by refusing to Board the USS Bon Homme Richard and refusing to become complicit in this illegal and morally anemic plight in Iraq. There have been moments when it seemed to me that the military would work within the rule of its own laws and grant me Conscientious Objector Status, but those moments are far behind me. I see even clearer now, that like the last 4 and a half years of my own life, everyone who has enlisted in the cause of war, however indirectly, has no autonomy. There are strings being pulled that force our hands. This is why young people like me at times execute the aggression of a select and elite few. The strings come in many forms and are often undetectable, but nevertheless effective.”

“And until we learn to seek out the source of our oppression and rip the strings off our backs and limbs, then as much as it saddens me to say, Iraqis will continue to suffer, Palestinians will continue to suffer, Hatians will continue to suffer, Poor people everywhere will continue to suffer.”

"I elected to carry a cross with me. A cross that will take away my freedom, and incarcerate me for a time. My family and a community of caring people who have embraced this struggle help me carry this minor cross. But it is those for whom I carry this minor cross, that truly need our help. It is the Iraqis that die for nothing more than believing they have a right to exist in their own country who need help. It is the Iraqi families who loose children, mothers and fathers for no other reason than believing they have a right to breath their own air. It is the misled soldiers with heroism in their heart and courage in their blood, who die at the hands of those they are misled into believing they are helping, it is they who need help carrying their cross. It is the families here at home who are left alone to mourn their unjust losses. It is the communities who are loosing their leaders of tomorrow and their resources of today, who desperately need our help. It is humanity as a whole that is carrying the mighty weight of unprovoked, unnecessary and unjust violence."

"I don’t have all the answers, but I know what all of us are taught at a very early age: violence is not the answer. Politically and morally I have very strong convictions against war and the politics that led to this one, but I don’t ever loose sight of the basic human quality that renders war, as a means of foreign policy or conflict resolution, obsolete: our sensitivity. Had we been born with no heartbeat and lacking the ability to weep and feel, then war would seem a simple solution to many problems. But the fact is, whatever race, religion, or political point of view that we espouse, we are all human beings first. Before we are partison, before we are of any ethnicity, before we are of any religion, before we claim any race, we must accept that we all make up the human race. We all understand ourselves to be a family called humanity and we feel each other’s pain and we cry each other’s tears. I believe that even the loudest war hawk in the world, if confronted face-to-face with a woman holding the lifeless body of a child whose blood dilutes in her mother’s tears, would weep and sob with guilt and compassion, and run not walk toward the light of resistance."

"I call on everyone who hears my voice, or reads these words, to reclaim their humanity. Refuse, as every member of humanity should, to promote this mass violence against innocent people.”

Such words from conscientious objectors remind me of friends who fought in wars they disagreed with strongly. So when i see the war’s toll on my friends' conscience, i ask, “Have you considered not going?” I do not encourage them, because a decision of conscience can only be made by the individual, but I let them know that if they have a moral objection to unjust orders, at least one friend will stand with them in their refusal.