Soldier gets 6-month sentence for refusing to deploy to Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Spc. Benjamin Stewart, center, leaves the Vilseck Court house after being convicted Wednesday of missing movement. He received a six-month prison term and a bad-conduct discharge.


Soldier gets 6-month sentence for refusing to deploy to Iraq
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, February 22, 2008

VILSECK, Germany — A soldier who refused to deploy with his unit to Iraq because of a “deeply held personal belief” that he should not take a human life will spend the next six months in jail before being thrown out of the Army.

Spc. Benjamin Stewart, 25, of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, pleaded guilty Wednesday to missing movement on Jan. 7, 2008, when he was scheduled to deploy to Iraq. Stewart had already been convicted — and reduced in rank from sergeant to specialist — of being absent without leave when the bulk of the regiment deployed last summer.

Stewart told the court that he refused to deploy because of what he experienced during his last deployment to Mosul, Iraq, from 2004 to 2005.

“I saw a mother and her infant child get killed in crossfire. I saw children lose their limbs in a car bomb. One boy lost an arm and another lost both legs,” he said.

After that mission, Stewart said, he decided he could not deploy again.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52686

[tekisui]

1. A brave man, and a Patriot. I salute you. Sir.

[Captain Hilts]

2. His first loyalty is to his unit. He has failed them. nt

[FalconsRule]

3. Most assuredly

[noamnety]

4. Incorrect.

His first loyalty is to the constitution.

[FalconsRule]

7. And to obey the orders

of the President and the officers appointed over him.

[noamnety]

8. not blindly, though

"I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

If there are ordering something the enlisted person believes to be a violation of the constitution, the regs, or the UCMJ, they are honor bound to refuse the order.

That's the reason as well for my objecting to anyone stating your first loyalty is to your fellow troops, because the implication is that you should cover their asses if they are lying, raping, murdering, etc.

First loyalty is to right and wrong, basically. All else follows.

[MaryCeleste]

5. The BCD will follow him for the rest of his life

And there is no practical way to get it lifted these days

[noamnety]

6. Ditto for the PTSD. (nt)

[rakeeb]

9. interesting quote from the artice:

“I’m not a pacifist or peacenik or against the war in Iraq. From the beginning, I believe the war was justified, (but) I could not live with myself if I killed another person,” he said.

The story does mention that he re-upped during his first tour, but mentions no attempt to seek conscientious objector status.