Please support this American soldier who has refused to fight in Iraq
Breaking Ranks to Shun War
An Army sergeant who refuses to return to Iraq
seeks a discharge as a conscientious objector. He
may instead face a court-martial.
By David Zucchino
Times Staff Writer
February 7, 2005
HINESVILLE, Ga. - His sergeant called him a
coward to his face. His chaplain sent him an
e-mail saying he was ashamed of him. His
commanders had him formally charged with
desertion.
Sgt. Kevin Benderman, who has served one tour of
duty in Iraq, is refusing to serve another. When
his fellow soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division
packed their gear and left nearby Ft. Stewart for
Iraq last week, Benderman stayed home. He says he
has chosen to follow his conscience - not his
commanders.
After 10 years in the Army, Benderman has applied
for a discharge as a conscientious objector - a
heresy to many in the military at a time when the
country is fighting two wars overseas.
Today, Benderman, 40, will attend a military
court hearing at Ft. Stewart that will determine
whether he will face a court-martial for
desertion and failure to report for a unit
deployment. He could face up to seven years in
prison if convicted.
"War is the greatest form of wrong," Benderman
wrote in his seven-page conscientious objector
application. "I believe that my moral obligation
to humanity is to not allow myself to be a part
of this destruction."
In the six months he spent in combat in Iraq in
2003, Benderman said, he was badly shaken by what
he witnessed. He saw a young Iraqi girl with her
arm horribly burned and blackened, standing
helplessly on a roadside as Benderman's convoy
rushed past. He saw dogs feasting on civilian
corpses that had been dumped into pits. He saw
young U.S. soldiers treat war like a video game,
he said, with few qualms about killing or the
effects of the invasion on ordinary Iraqis.
Benderman said he begged an officer to stop and
help the girl, but was told that the unit
couldn't spare its limited medical supplies. "I
had to look at that little girl, look into her
eyes, and in her eyes I saw the TRUTH. I cannot
kill," Benderman wrote in his application.
Only a handful of conscientious objector
applications have been filed during the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, which are being fought by
professional soldiers, not draftees. Vietnam, a
war that bitterly divided the U.S., produced
172,000 conscientious objector applications from
draftees and 17,000 from active-duty soldiers.
For the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, applications
increased from 23 in 2002 to 60 in 2003 and 67
last year, according to Pentagon figures. Of
those applications, 71 - almost half - have been
approved. Unlike Benderman, few applicants have
spoken publicly about their beliefs.
After seeing the civilian corpses, Benderman
said, he made a point of befriending ordinary
Iraqis, only to be warned by officers not to
fraternize with "the enemy." He had long talks
with an English-speaking schoolteacher. He began
reading the Koran and realized that the religious
and moral values of most Iraqis were similar to
his. Everything he had been told about the
rationale for the U.S. invasion, he said, seemed
misguided and destructive.
Benderman said he now believed the war in Iraq -
and all wars - were immoral. His conscience would
no longer allow him to fight or kill, he said,
even if that made him a pariah.
"War robs you of your humanity. It makes people
do terrible things they would otherwise never
do," Benderman said in the living room of his
home in Hinesville, his wife, Monica, by his side
and his dog, Carl, at his feet.
When Benderman returned from Iraq to Ft. Stewart
a year ago, he began studying the works of Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. He engaged
in long discussions with his wife. He weighed his
options before deciding to file his application
Dec. 28. Benderman said his military superiors
tried to shame him and talk him out of it. But he
said he was willing to endure the contempt of his
peers, and even go to prison.
"I'm not going to run from my convictions," he
said. "I believe what I'm doing is the right
thing, whatever the consequences."
Monica Benderman, whose essay on a faith-based
pacifist website about the immorality of war
helped crystallize her husband's views, said she
was proud of him. Many soldiers and their
families have told the couple they share their
opposition to war, she said, but were afraid to
speak up for fear of being ostracized. Several
Vietnam veterans have stepped forward to support
them.
"We believe in speaking the truth. You put
forward the truth and the right things will
happen," she said.
The couple said they have received e-mails and
letters of support from people around the world,
including Iraqis, Guatemalans and Germans. They
have also received e-mails and phone calls
branding them cowards and traitors.
"All because a man has chosen to speak out
against war and violence, and his wife has chosen
to stand with him," Monica wrote in her essay,
"Catching Flack - A Military Wife Speaks."
Kevin Benderman looks and talks like a soldier.
Tall and solidly built, with close-cropped brown
hair, he speaks with a Southern drawl in the
jargon-laden argot of a career soldier.
His father served in World War II, his
grandfather in World War I. Members of his family
served on both sides in the Civil War, and one
ancestor, William Benderman, fought in the
American Revolution, Benderman said.
Raised in a Southern Baptist family in Alabama
and Tennessee, Benderman grew up wanting to be a
pro football player, not a soldier. At age 22,
Benderman decided he wanted to follow family
tradition and join the Army. He served four
years, then worked laying hardwood and tile
flooring. In June 2000, feeling patriotic, he
decided to reenlist.
"I signed up to serve my country," he said. "I
felt I had a commitment to fulfill."
He was a Bradley fighting vehicle mechanic with
the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq.
Benderman said his father, Guy, who died in 2001,
had discouraged him from joining the military. He
believes his father would have supported his
decision to seek objector status.
While his application works its way through the
military, Benderman has been assigned to the 3rd
Infantry's rear detachment at Ft. Stewart, a few
miles from his home. He reports daily for 6:30
a.m. physical fitness training, then spends his
days supervising soldiers held back from
deployment to Iraq for medical reasons or family
emergencies.
"There are no restrictions on him," said a base
spokesman, Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone.
Filing for conscientious objector status is a
long and arduous process. Benderman has been
required to meet with a chaplain and psychologist
and write essays detailing his moral and
religious beliefs.
His chaplain did not respond to phone messages or
e-mails, Benderman said, and refused to talk to
him when Benderman went to see him at Ft.
Stewart. After the chaplain had reached Kuwait en
route to Iraq with other soldiers from the
division, Benderman said, he sent him an e-mail:
"You should be ashamed of the way you have
conducted yourself. I am certainly ashamed of
you."
Benderman later met with another chaplain, who
wrote a letter saying, "Sgt. Benderman is sincere
in his moral and ethical beliefs. His beliefs
are deeply held to the point where he has no
choice but to act in accord with them."
Benderman also met with a military psychologist,
who filled out a one-page assessment saying he
exhibited no mental health problems.
His commanding officer filed a one-page form in
which he recommended that the objector
application be rejected, then told him, "You're
on your own," Benderman said.
The final decision on Benderman's application
will be made by the Army Conscientious Objector
Review Board, made up of three officers,
including a chaplain. A Pentagon spokeswoman said
the burden of proof was on applicants, who must
convince the board of their moral and religious
objections to war.
Like all new recruits, Benderman signed a
statement saying he was not a conscientious
objector. However, the military accepts
applications made by soldiers who, like
Benderman, say their beliefs have changed during
their service.
Conscientious objection is a long-standing
principle in America. As early as 1673, Rhode
Island provided alternative militia service for
conscientious objectors. In 1701, Pennsylvania
under William Penn provided that anyone with a
proven conscientious objection to war "shall not
be in any case be molested or prejudiced."
During the first federal conscription, in the
Civil War, about 1,200 conscientious objectors
were allowed to perform alternative service for
the Union. The Confederacy exempted certain
members of pacifist churches.
During World War I, local draft boards granted
conscientious objector status to 22,000 draftees.
In World War II, about 25,000 men were granted
objector status and assigned to noncombatant
duty. Alternative service was provided for people
who opposed war "by reason of religious training
and belief."
Benderman said several soldiers who served with
him in Iraq shared his views. Two members of his
battalion attempted suicide after being ordered
to return to Iraq, he said, and several more have
gone AWOL to avoid deployment. A specialist from
the division has been charged with having a
friend shoot him in the leg as part of a staged
armed robbery in an attempt to avoid returning to
Iraq.
Antiwar groups that offer counseling to soldiers
say opposition to the Iraq war among soldiers is
higher than the Pentagon acknowledges. The GI
Rights Hotline, run by a consortium of antiwar
groups, received 32,000 calls last year, many
from soldiers who have gone AWOL or complained of
psychological or emotional problems after serving
in combat. About 15% of the calls were from
soldiers considering conscientious objector
applications, said Steve Morse of the Central
Committee for Conscientious Objectors.
"Soldiers are finding that the military is much
different from the way it's sold to them by
recruiters," Morse said. "When they get into
combat, it's suddenly not a video game. It's no
longer abstract."
Benderman says his training did not prepare him
for the brutality and often indiscriminate
slaughter he witnessed.
"You can train all you want and watch training
videos, but you can't possibly know what combat
is like until you experience it," he said. "You
can't burn a little girl's arm off in training,
or have dogs eat human remains, or have soldiers
actually shoot and kill real people."
Young men who had never experienced combat were
eager to fight in Iraq, he said, but were
overwhelmed once they had to kill the enemy or
watch their friends die or suffer grievous wounds.
Benderman said he saw 19- and 20-year-old
soldiers hardened by killing. While under enemy
fire, he said, one young soldier leaped up and
began videotaping incoming rounds.
Monica Benderman said she sensed her husband's
view of war evolving in the letters and e-mails
he sent from Iraq. He asked her to mail him small
gifts to hand out to Iraqis, and told her he had
come to realize how destructive the invasion had
been for civilians.
Benderman said he believed he would prevail at
today's hearing, and insisted that he had not
deserted his unit.
"I didn't go anywhere. I didn't run to Canada,"
he said. "I'm still right here."
If his application is denied and he is ordered
back to Iraq, he said, he would refuse to go. He
has turned a corner, he said, and he will not
turn back.
"I've already refused once," he said. "I will not
change my mind, no matter what."
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
January 27, 2005
My Husband Is Defending Democracy
by Monica Benderman
In a democracy, we are supposed to have choices.
Our Constitution gives us those choices. Our
Constitution is founded on the highest order of
morality. As a soldier, my husband, Sgt. Kevin
Benderman, has a sworn duty to defend his country
and its Constitution. As a soldier, my husband
therefore has a sworn duty to defend morality.
"Thou shalt not kill." After seeing the
immorality of war firsthand, my husband has laid
down his weapons to kill no more. What greater
defense of our Constitution is there?
This morning my husband and I sat down together,
away from every electronic communication device
we have; we shared coffee and thoughts about the
past three weeks of our lives. We are baffled
that a decision, a choice that makes such simple
sense to us, is causing such an uproar.
"Thou shalt not kill." We have heard it since
childhood, but life, society, religious
instruction all find a way to wrap a simple
statement into myriad parables until the simple
truth is unrecognizable, hidden in
justifications, addenda, and codicils. Reality,
the act of living it, not dramatizing it, not
fantasizing it, not presuming its nature, just
living it, gave us all we needed to unwrap the
package and face the simple truth.
My work has been taking care of people who are
sick or aged so that when it is their time to
die, it is with dignity. I saw the true nobility
of a life well lived, and a death that was proud;
a declaration of peace, and respect for life.
My husband's work showed him the alternative,
dying young, for a cause far less noble than
life, and it will continue unless we learn to lay
down our weapons in respect for all the soldiers
who have given their lives for peace. He saw the
worst; unnatural death brought about by the
arrogance of people who dared to try to control
life.
We are asked how someone who accepted his duty to
train for war five years ago, two years ago - who
served a combat tour - could now say he is
against all war?
We respond with more questions of our own:
How is it that someone can profess to honor the
veterans who have served in past wars, then leave
their father or mother stranded in a nursing home
with little regard for their care or emotional
well-being? How can a country that allows this
question my husband for wanting to honor the
service of our veterans by fighting for peace in
a war without weapons?
How can a pastor profess an understanding of true
faith, say he speaks in God's name, teach others
to walk the path of the "Prince of Peace," and
yet claim the Bible, God's word, says that war is
a necessity, the evil we must face before we can
see peace?
How can a country that dares to profess faith
question my husband's defense of God's teachings
for laying down his weapons and choosing that
same path of peace?
Some say the Bible is a prophecy. We say the
Bible is a prophecy of what could happen if we
make the wrong choice. The Bible says war will
happen, not because it must, but because man will
not walk the path of peace. Democracy gives us
all a choice. We have made ours. We have made the
only choice that maintains our integrity and
brings us peace. We respect the choices of
others, even when we do not understand them;
democracy requires that. My husband is a soldier,
sworn to defend our country's Constitution, and I
have sworn to support him in that defense.
"Thou shalt not kill," simple words now. My
husband has laid down his gun to raise a far more
powerful weapon he has made his choice to raise
his hand in peace.
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My Husband Is Defending Democracy
1/27/2005
Monica Benderman is the wife of Sgt. Kevin
Benderman of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry
Division, who was stop-lossed and has refused to
return to Iraq.
Reproduction of material from any original Antiwar.com pages
without written permission is strictly prohibited.
Copyright 2005 Antiwar.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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