Traprock
Peace Center invites your support Kevin Benderman's defense. Funds are still
need for his court-martial, and funds will be needed for the appeal.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."
[Traprock Note: We had linked to the original article, but it was archived by the LA Times and the original link no longer existed. Thus, we reprint it under 'fair use' law. We prefer to link to, rather than reprint, the original article whenever possible.]
Benderman Case Scheduled for General Court Martial
February 25, 2005
FORT STEWART, Ga. – The General Court-Martial Convening Authority
referred the case of United States versus Sergeant Kevin Benderman to a
General Court-Martial late Wednesday. Benderman is charged with Article
85, desertion with intent to avoid hazardous duty and Article 87, missing
movement through design under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The date of the trial has yet to be determined.
In this case a General Court-Martial can adjudge a maximum sentence of
7 years confinement, total forfeiture of pay and allowances, reduction to
the lowest enlisted grade, and a dishonorable discharge.
For more information contact 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs, (912)
767-5688 or (912) 767-6098.
Army Press Release (doc file)