Support U.S. war resisters

By Dee Knight

Dec 22, 2008

The statements of war resisters Benji Lewis and Robin Long are strong examples of the current surge in GI resistance and the emerging struggles for amnesty and sanctuary.

Benji Lewis served two tours in Iraq and was honorably discharged in 2007. In 2008 he got the news that he is eligible for recall to active duty. At a Winter Soldier event in Portland, Ore., he announced his intention to refuse reactivation. On Veterans Day, Lewis and fellow resister Brandon Neely made the following statement:

“We ... have refused or will refuse any activation orders that would lead to us serving an unjust and imperial U.S. foreign policy. It is a prevailing notion that this refusal is unpatriotic, but we consider our actions the only choice. Not only did the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan do great harm to the people of those countries, but they undermined the ostensible goal with which the wars were begun: Instead of stopping terrorism, it has proliferated terrorism, an expectation that was predicted well before the war started. ...

“We are direct witnesses to the horrors of this war, having experienced its atrocities at their source, and we have decided that we can no longer carry out these illegal and immoral policies. ...

“We believe that veterans and active-duty GIs are in a key position to stop illegal and unjust war, and we are inspired by the resistance of troops who stood against the war in Vietnam. One of the pre-eminent reasons for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was increasing dissent among the active-duty troops stationed abroad and at home. By the end of the war, there were entire units refusing to participate in combat, many going as far as outright mutiny.”

Robin Long asks for clemency or pardon

Robin Long, the first Iraq War resister deported from Canada into U.S. military custody, was sentenced in August 2008 to 15 months of confinement and a dishonorable discharge. He is currently at the Miramar military prison in San Diego.

Long went to Canada in 2005. Last July the Canadian government kidnapped and deported him to U.S. military custody, forcing him to leave behind his 2-year-old son. Long is the first war resister deported from Canadian soil since the Vietnam War.

In November Long wrote a public letter to President-elect Barack Obama, which read in part:

“I am locked up for refusing to participate in the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, a military action I felt was wrong and an action condemned by most of the international community. ...

“I feel, like many others, that a government that punishes its citizens for taking a moral stand for humanity and against injustices will lose the faith of its people. The war in Iraq was a Bush administration mistake and my punishment is a product of that mistake and failed policy. ...

“You may say I signed a contract. I’d like to quote from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to George Washington in April of 1793: ‘When performance, for instance, becomes impossible, non-performance is not immoral. So if performance becomes self-destructive for the party, the law of self preservation overrules the laws of obligations to others.’ ...

“In the case of the invasion of Iraq, international law was broken, as well as ... our own Constitution. ... I had a higher international duty supported by our Constitution to refuse service in Iraq. ...

“I ask you to please consider granting me presidential clemency or a pardon. ... I am so happy that you were elected President. I feel real change coming. You are the light after the storm—‘Hurricane Bush,’ if you will.”

To communicate and send support to Long, Lewis and other resisters, write to them c/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave., #41, Oakland, CA 94610. More information about these and other war resisters can be found at CourageToResist.org.

Bulletin

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, announced plans to deport another U.S. war resister on Dec. 24, and one more on Jan. 7. (The Globe and Mail, Dec. 17) The Toronto-based War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC) reports widespread protest of the ruling. A Parliament vote earlier in 2008 called for the government to let the resisters stay.