Army Objector Calls War "Most Stupid"

[twpdyp]

Army Objector Calls War 'Most Stupid'

POSTED: 8:40 p.m. EDT May 7, 2005

ATLANTA -- An Army sergeant facing a court martial for desertion says it took 10 years of military service and one six-month tour in Iraq to turn him into a conscientious objector.

"A war, clearly and concisely, is the most stupid and base thing that humans can do to each other," Sgt. Kevin Benderman said in an appearance Saturday at Georgia Tech.

Benderman faces a court martial next week but has applied for conscientious objector status. His first request was denied but he refused to redeploy to Iraq.

"I'm not really sure what their basis (for denial) was," he said. "They said I'm insincere."

Benderman has traveled the country with his wife, Monica, seeking public support and donations to his defense fund.

"The young people that are fighting the war have to put their humanity aside in order to survive," Benderman said.

Benderman could face up to 14 years in military prison if he's convicted of desertion.

Channel Two correspondent Tracy Martinez contributed to this report.

Copyright 2005 by WSBTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/4463063/detail.html

I did not realize that a soldier has the option of picking and choosing whom he is going to fight and where he will fight. My personal belief, well just read my signature. He is a volunteer so he asked to be in the military. He has been in the military for 10 years long enough to have had to re-enlist at least one time. I say go ahead and court martial him. In life we make decisions, we must learn to not only live with those decisions but to also live by our word. When he enlisted and when he re-enlisted he swore an oath, "I, _________, 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. So help me God. "http://www.radomes.org/oath.html

Now he wants to renegotiate when he well knew that if he pursued this path it would lead to a court martial. I don't get it people it is like a race car driver complaining that racing is to dangerous and to fast, didn't he know that when he pursued that as a career. Same goes here, didn't this guy realize that joining the military involves a certain risk and a certain dedication. He apparently did for 10 years now he wants to change the rules to suit him. This guy needs a reminder that life doesn't work that way. I see the same mentality here at work almost daily. I hear from folks,"I want to do what you do." So I explain how much it takes and the dedication involved, the education involved, and the hours involved. They respond, "I am ready to do it". 6 months later only one quarter of the way through the training program they want to complain, "This is to hard, can't the training be easier, I can't handle this, I want to quit" They gave their word to finish, understood the commitment it would take then they want to change the rules to suit them. Same thing in this case.

[__Kratos__]

Well, if you would like to send this slime a most wonderful personal email, his email as listed on his defense site is: mdawnb@coastalnow.net

I will be sending him my thoughts true from my heart, after this post. People like him disgust me to the point that I would like to vomit. He would rather desert then help protect his fellow soldiers and country. It doesn't matter, that he does not believe in the war, what does matter to him is that a higher officer gave him a direct order and he refused. In the military you don't get to pick and choose what orders you want to follow. Please, send your e-mail and tell him how you really feel about him deserting YOU!

[PadawanOsswe]

what a rat-b******! first of all, he wont follow his orders,and second he is damaging the morale of his comrads, and causeing bad propaganda amongst the nation and world. they should strip him of his Rank, ribbons,stripes,insignia,etc... he is a filth. (I spit on him)

[PadawanOsswe]

lol, I just told him off

[__Kratos__]

To my surprise his wife already emailed me back about my strong comments about her husband!

Sorry but we just aren't going to fight with you.

We did forward your email to a couple of journalists who are doing

documentaries on the sad state of the American mindset.  People in

America

actually FIGHT to justify war.

Sorry again.... we just can't help you, Kevin.

Good night.

Forwarding my email to journalists... I hope they do publish my great email. I only spoke from my heart about what I thought about him and his actions.

Well, if you would like to send this slime a most wonderful personal email, his email as listed on his defense site is: mdawnb@coastalnow.net

[Fluffybunny]

I love how folks who have never been in combat are always so quick to pass judgement on folks that have...

[Triniant]

I second that!

[__Kratos__]

I love how folks who have never been in combat are always so quick to pass judgement on folks that have...

611862[/snapback]

Sure, his mind set isn't the best. But he still disobeyed an order. He left his fellow soldiers. It is the fact that he deserted. How can you not pass judgement on someone like that? They are a weak coward. He knew the risks, he did enlist... just like Jeremy Hinzman, only only this guy didn't flee to Canada. Hmm... oddly roughly the same reasons, just different words.

I am Sgt Kevin Benderman and:

These are the chronological events that led me to conclude that I had no other choice than to refuse the deployment order to Iraq.

I was deployed to Iraq in March 2003 and returned in September 2003; while I was there I was with the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. We staged our vehicles in Kuwait and then proceeded to move out into Iraq. We were carried on the back of heavy equipment transporters to about fifty miles south of Baghdad and then we downloaded the vehicles. We were in the vehicles while they were on the trucks, which I thought was a little odd considering that in the garrison environment those types of actions are considered unsafe and are therefore not allowed.

During the road march north through the country I saw the effects of what war does to people, those effect are such; homes were bombed, people were living in mud huts, people were obtaining their drinking water from mud puddles along the side of the road and were catching rain in buckets when it did rain, they begged us for food and water and we had enough, we would share it with the people that were there, the kids looked especially hungry and thirsty. The commander told us to stop giving the people food because they would get food from other sources after the trucks started bringing in relief supplies.

Somewhere along the route there was this one woman standing along side the road with a young girl of about 8 or 9 years old and the little girl’s arm was burned all the way up her shoulder and I don’t mean just a little blistered, I mean she had 3rd degree burns the entire length of her arm and she crying in pain because of the burns. I asked the troop executive officer if we could stop and help the family and I was told that the medical supplies that we had were limited and that we may need them, I informed him that I would donate my share to that girl but we did not stop to help her.

When we were there, the command elements ordered the unit to perform all types of actions that are considered unsafe to soldiers, such as, having military vehicle maintenance personnel retrieve missiles that were present in our area of operations using a M88 recovery vehicle and transport them to sites to be destroyed by the explosive ordnance personnel. They also ordered mortar personnel to enter into a compound that held various types of munitions that the Iraqi army had left behind and to load these munitions onto trucks. When these personnel were not working fast enough for the 1SG he ordered them to throw the mortar rounds onto the trucks whereupon one of rounds exploded and inflicted shrapnel wounds on two soldiers.

We were using an old custom building that was located in the middle of the town that we were in for the troop HQ and naturally that attracted the attention of the local populace. Small children would come up to the wall that surrounded the place before we had a chance to apply concertina wire along the top of the wall and they would toss small pebbles at us inside the walls. We would tell the children to get down from the wall and leave the area, one day the troop commander saw us telling the children top get down from the wall and he told everyone there that if the children came back at any time after that to shoot them if they were to climb back onto the wall.

I was in charge of a group of soldiers that were in their late teens through their early twenties and I had to constantly tell them to keep their heads down because they thought that the war was like the video games that they played back at the barracks. War is not like that at all and until you have the misfortune to engage in it for yourself you cannot begin to understand how insane it all is. There are no restart buttons on reality and that is why I cannot figure out why now we are pursuing such a policy in this day and age. War should be relegated to the shelves of history, as was human sacrifice.  If you stop to think about it you become aware that war is just human sacrifice. There is no honor in killing as many as you can as quickly as you can.

We, in America refer to ourselves as civilized and people from other countries still living the simple life are backwards and un-civilized, but what is civil about the capability to create atomic weapons? What is civil about being able to kill over 100,000 people with just one bomb?  We may be more technologically advanced but are we more civilized? I think the answer is no. War has to be considered the absolute enemy of mankind. Where we would be without it? I would presume that we as a nation would be out of debt if we were to apply as much energy to pursuing sound economics as we do pursuing war, we would never get sick if we spent as much on preventive medicine as we do on war, the elderly would get affordable prescription medication if we were to use the resources that are spent on war to work for that purpose, there would not be un educated children if we were to buy new classrooms and books for schools instead of new weapons systems, social security would be a lot more secure with some of the money that war costs.

Why do we want to train the young people in the world that the only way we can settle our differences is to kill one another?  Why shouldn’t we train them to become surgeons or homebuilders?  Why shouldn’t we train to become anything but killers? I think that the world would be better off if we were to do that instead. I have talked to veterans from every war from WWII on and their opinion is that the wars they fought were to be the last war ever fought. How many more are we going to fight before we realize that the act of war is for small minded people that are intent in only satisfying their own needs and not the needs of the people in general? I do not want to be killed because I am living in a place that has a ruler that wants to go to war with any one.

The only way to bring peace to the world is to let the people of the world decide for themselves what they want to spend their efforts on. I feel that in this day and age governments start wars, and not people, and since the governments want the wars then why don’t we let the government fight the war? All of the politicians that want to fight a war are free to trade places with me at any time. I will gladly go and learn war no more.

There are activities that I have been involved in that have led me to these new and developed beliefs, and they are numerous but I can tell you some of them.  When you walk in the woods and you see a deer stand and look at you, or you are on the river in the morning and the mist rises off the water while you hear the morning calls of the river birds, and the otters just lie there as you glide past in your boat and don’t even move, you know that there is a better way.  When you can find solitude in the woods that are so filled with peace and the wildlife that is all around you, you feel the better way all around. A person must acknowledge the fact the we are a part of the universe and the universe does not want to be out of sorts with itself, so why do we spend so much effort on trying to be out of sorts with others of the human race?

I have been to the war zone and I have seen the devastation it causes.  Why can’t everyone agree that war is the most repugnant of all human endeavors? Why is it considered noble to be able to look through the sights of a rifle and kill another human being from 300 meters away? Why are you a hero if you can throw a hand grenade farther than the next guy in the foxhole? Shouldn’t these young men and women that are in the army be throwing footballs or baseballs or softballs instead? It would impress me a lot more to see someone make the winning free throw at the basketball game or kick the winning extra point at the football game, or knock in the winning run at the World Series than to see them be able to shoot more humans from 300 hundred meters.  I would rather they spend their time at the golf course or the tennis courts or in college, any where but in the war zone trying to survive and having to kill to do it. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Source

Where would America be without a military? Where would any country be without a military, while a good part of the world has a military? Let alone a superpower... Nobody said war was fun, enjoyable or pretty. Again, he knew what he was getting into when he signed the papers and took his oath.

During this tour, my husband's unit was ordered by their Commander to shoot at the small children who threw rocks at the soldiers patrolling the area.  The entire unit refused the order, but what an order!!!

I received a response from someone yesterday when I related the story of the children.  Interesting response; He said that the order to shoot the children was "a judgment call."

I quote:

"As far as shooting young people throwing rocks, that is a judgment call.  When I retired from the military I joined the police force of a large urban city.  As I was going through training one of the scenarios we had was a bunch of bad guys throwing rocks at us.  According to our training, throwing rocks is deadly force.  If someone throws a rock at you, you are justified in shooting them.  That is the training I received in the police training academy.  Now I don't think I would want to shoot a young person who was throwing rocks at me but under certain circumstances I would and I would be justified.”

Look these young people over there are indoctrinated to hate.  If they would have had a gun rather than rocks they would have shot your husband.  My best friend is in Balad right now.  He tells me that kids are all the time shooting at the troops and the troops shoot back and kill the kids.  It is not what we are accustomed to that is for sure. "

Source

During Vietnam there were a number of reports of kids being shot. If they want to take up a weapon of choice and fight, then they know they can die in that fight. Nature doesn't have any laws saying a 12 year old boy can't kill a fully trained 23 year old soldier.

[PadawanOsswe]

I recieved a reply from them too, it says pretty much the same thing

[Richdog]

So let me get this straight Kratos... you would prefer a man to fight even if his heart and mind eweren't set on it, which could potentially lead to a dangerous situation for him and his comrades?

The guy has no fight left in him, so youd rather he be FORCED onto the battlefield?

If so, then that's the thing that is truly sick...

We can all make choices in life, he has made his, and should be respected for standing by his morals and principles. Kudos to him for standing against a system he thinks is unjust.

[PadawanOsswe]

wether he wants to go or not, he signed the papers and took the oath that even if he didnt want to, he would have to go. my dad sure as hell didnt want to be called up for the first Gulf War,but by god if he was ORDERED to go, he would've.

the guy was ordered, and he refused, therefore he is a coward and a liar. that didnt take his oath seriously

Edited May 9, 2005 by PadawanOsswe

[Dowdy]

I pretty much agree with this soldier. Sure he read and signed the oath but they are just words on a piece of paper. You really got to see how cruel war is to really comment. There is a thread about agent orange somewhere, go look at that. I'm not in the army so i would know about combat but there are plenty of sites showing images of what war really is(PM me if you want them). BTW, I did try and join the army but i couldn't get in because they said i got asthma.

... He left his fellow soldiers. It is the fact that he deserted. How can you not pass judgement on someone like that?

Didn't George Bush do something similar.

[__Kratos__]

So let me get this straight Kratos... you would prefer a man to fight even if his heart and mind eweren't set on it, which could potentially lead to a dangerous situation for him and his comrades?

The guy has no fight left in him, so youd rather he be FORCED onto the battlefield?

If so, then that's the thing that is truly sick...

We can all make choices in life, he has made his, and should be respected for standing by his morals and principles.  Kudos to him for standing against a system he thinks is unjust. 

611956[/snapback]

He signed his papers and took his oath. He knew what he was getting into. Yes, he did make a choice, his choice was to serve America and take orders from higher ranks.

I pretty much agree with this soldier. Sure he read and signed the oath but they are just words on a piece of paper. You really got to see how cruel war is to really comment. There is a thread about agent orange somewhere, go look at that. I'm not in the army so i would know about combat but there are plenty of sites showing images of what war really is(PM me if you want them). BTW, I did try and join the army but i couldn't get in because they said i got asthma.

... He left his fellow soldiers. It is the fact that he deserted. How can you not pass judgement on someone like that?

Didn't George Bush do something similar.

611980[/snapback]

I don't need your sites, I have enough on my own... I would rather see the raw images then the cropped and censored stories on the world news. Nah... Bush came up the pay stubs from his enlistment time so I guess he didn't desert. He knew what he was getting into, when he signed up. You can't sign a contract then cut it short because you don't want to serve.

[PadawanOsswe]

in america you are supposed to take that oath seriously, and ya, my dad's told me many times "combat is horrible,it makes you want to s*** yourself", but really when you break it all down the guy is lazy and is a coward, he is just too afraid to s*** himself.

Edited May 9, 2005 by PadawanOsswe

[Commander CMG]

in america you are supposed to take that oath seriously, and ya, my dad's told me many times "combat is horrible,it makes you want to s*** yourself", but really when you break it all down the guy is lazy and is a coward, he is just too afraid to s*** himself.

612005[/snapback]

You have no idea what you are talking about passing judgment based on a something yopur dad has told you.

[PadawanOsswe]

I'm not saying I know what combat is like, cause god knows I dont, all I'm saying is that the guy is a coward and lazy.

[Dowdy]

I don't get it people it is like a race car driver complaining that racing is to dangerous and to fast, didn't he know that when he pursued that as a career. Same goes here, didn't this guy realize that joining the military involves a certain risk and a certain dedication.

And it's also like say. "hey you, work in this swerage dump. It smells but you get paid 2k a week". Then after one week you quite because of the smell. Nothing can prepare you for it

Same goes for the army and war. Although they don't tell you "you'll see bodies with their guts spilling out", they expect you know but nothing can prepare you for those images

[__Kratos__]

I don't get it people it is like a race car driver complaining that racing is to dangerous and to fast, didn't he know that when he pursued that as a career. Same goes here, didn't this guy realize that joining the military involves a certain risk and a certain dedication.

And it's also like say. "hey you, work in this swerage dump. It smells but you get paid 2k a week". Then after one week you quite because of the smell. Nothing can prepare you for it

Same goes for the army and war. Although they don't tell you "you'll see bodies with their guts spilling out", they expect you know but nothing can prepare you for those images

612046[/snapback]

So because he couldn't handle dead bodies, we should say "o, thats alright man, you don't need to finish your contract or have to obey orders anymore. you are the only one that is sickened by those images so you must be special..." Sure, there is nothing to prepare you for what you see, but you are expected to suck it up and do your job.

[Commander CMG]

Many sign up not expecting to go to War regardless to the Oath they take and when it does eventually happen irespective of what training programs you have gone through, there is nothing that actually prepares you for what you are about to through, he is not alone there are many that fall by the way side that can not hack it, and it is beetr now than in the field where he could create a danger to himself and his collegues.

Watching people being friends and collegues die, innocent men women and children being blown to bits and or burning alive is not everyones taking the very life from someone is not everyones cup of cup tea.

However he did sign up and will get what is coming too him.

[PadawanOsswe]

yeah, he knew good and well that he was gonna see stuff that might be disturbing, but still no reason for him to not take responisbility. he needs to grow a pair and be man.

[wunarmdscissor]

am i missing something here....

padawan.

the guy served bloody 10 years in the military, not only that he did serve in Iraq for 6 months.

this guy is clearly not lazy OR a coward .

Perhaps, in this day and age , his heart was so not in it that he couldnt carry on. I would imagine(and having never been in combat thats all i can di) that if your heart isnt in it during combat then he would be either at risk kof death or even a liability to his comrades.

Remember he wasnt drafted.

[Commander CMG]

PadawanOsswe... You really have no idea what you are talking about and I am being polite to you.

[SnakeProphet]

I'm not saying I know what combat is like, cause god knows I dont, all I'm saying is that the guy is a coward and lazy.

612032[/snapback]

You risk being a greater coward and liar.And even more, a hypocrite.

How does the oath look like?Did he actually had to say it or is it only a piece of paper,which he signed?

[Richdog]

*sigh* what if the man signed up for the military as he thought it was right then later along the line his principles changed, and he could no longer do it as he thought it wasn't right?

All I see is kids accusing someone of being lazy and a coward when they know nothing about this man. A lazy man does not serve 10 years in the military, 10 years is a long time, and longer than many. A human being also has the right to choose his own destiny, 10 years is enough time to undergo a change in your mindset, 10 years is long enough for something you thought was right turn into something you think is wrong. And yould YOU keep on doing something you thought was wrong, something you couldn't justify to yourself?

It takes more courage to stand up for yourself and your principles and do what you think is right, then keep your head down and continue to do it because society says you must.

You people slating him have got a fair bit of learning to do... human nature isn't as straightforward, black & white as you think it is...

Edited May 9, 2005 by Richdog

[Commander CMG]

Nicely versed.