Conscientious objector to Iraq war launches "Contagious Love Experiment"
It's a special opportunity to meet two different anti-war world travelers on the same day, and I had such an opportunity at the Nyack headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation last week when I was introduced to a young U.S. Army veteran who left Iraq as a conscientious objector as well as a British peace activist who has entered military bases on Ploughshares-like actions. They had come from — and were heading in — different directions, but we found a lot of common cause during our brief time together.
The latter individual, Chris Cole, is the director of FoR-England (they use "FoR" with a lower-case "O" while we use "FOR"). Chris and his good colleagues at FoR-England are doing great work with a tiny staff; I was particularly inspired to hear of their efforts with youth and of the small grants they are making to peace groups in different parts of the globe (especially the developing world).
The former person is Josh Stieber, who served in Iraq for 14 months before (remarkably) being granted C.O. status earlier this year. Josh is now three weeks into an eight-month journey to be spent walking and bicycling across the United States to talk with people about "peaceful ways to overcome challenges." He started his walk in late May in Washington, D.C., and is heading northeast to Boston at this point; in early July he will begin walking westward to Kansas, and from there he will bike to the west coast this fall. Serendipitously, Josh's short stay in the NY metropolitan area coincided with the 6th annual Children of Abraham Peace Walk in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Josh (pictured at left, in back/center without hat — behind FOR's executive director, Mark Johnson, with baseball cap) is a soft-spoken but inspirational young man, and one thing I love about his humble effort is that he is using this period to promote the work of different nonprofit organizations, not himself. You can learn much more about him and the people he's meeting — including brief highlights of our time together last week — on his Contagious Love Experiment blog.
Addendum: Interestingly, another U.S. army veteran of the Iraq war is in the news this week for refusing service. Victor Agosto Agosto, a soldier based at Fort Hood in Texas, is publicly refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan. He recently wrote on military forms: "There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect." Agosto also stated: "I will not obey any orders I deem to be immoral or illegal." Portions of these statements are available online here.
Having served in the Army since 2005, including a tour in Iraq, Agosto can no longer bear to serve and says that he is "ready for the consequences, whatever they are." On April 30 he told his commanding officer that he would not deploy with his unit to Afghanistan, and since May 11 he has been refusing all orders directly connected to his unit's deployment. Agosto is waiting to see what the military will do to him. A possible outcome is military court martial and years in prison.
You can learn more about Agosto's case in this interview with Dahr Jamail, and find ways to support him and other soldiers who are refusing to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq through the organization Courage to Resist.
