Thursday, January 04, 2007

Conscientious Objectors

I saw a news article today on Yahoo! that made me think. It's about a lieutenant in the army who has refused to deploy to Iraq - as he feels the war was started on a false premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - which they did not have. I have to say I agree with what he says, and - though I'm more likely to be anti-war then some of you out there - I think you might too. Check it out. I put the permalink in, so this story should be there no matter when you look at it.

Also - as a side note to the story above - I watched Dan Rather's HDNET show the other night and he featured a soldier who refused to deploy and filed conscientious objector status. I am pretty sure (though I'm not a war historian) that this war is the first one in which a soldier and/or officer has ever filed for that status after willingly joining the military. As far as I can tell, it's because neither of them agree with this particular war - though they may be willing to fight others that made sense to them. This seems to be the new protestor - the soldier or officer in the army. During the Vietnam war the majority of objectors were people who didn't want to get drafted and hippies. It seems that America isn't willing to make the mistake of fighting a pointless war again, and even those who are commissioned to fight the war are realizing it. I say kudos to them.

Happy New Year

Wow! 2007 already! I've got all my resolutions written and am ready to begin the new year. I hope everyone out there has a happy and safe new year.