Read my latest flash, Venison, at 52|250.

Like so many other young people, Agustín Aguayo joined the army because of economic pressures. But when he saw the horrors he was expected to enact on the people of Iraq, he refused to carry a loaded weapon. He continued in this way through a 12-month tour of duty in Iraq, whether carrying out his medical duties or going on patrol. Despite this history, his conscientious objector suit was rejected.

He cannot be called a coward since he faced death every day during his tour. He made a choice to respect human life even in a situation in which that choice placed him in grave danger and in so doing has earned a place of authority from which to speak of pacifism.

If every soldier in the US armed forces acted as he did, this war would be over. I suppose that’s why he was convicted of missing movement and desertion when he refused to go on a second tour of duty. An example needed to be made.

The two-part Christian Science Monitor story about him ends with his own words:

In basic training, Aguayo explains, when soldiers jog in formation, “if there’s a guy that is running and can’t keep up … somebody falls out and helps him – or somebody screams at him … to encourage him, to push him.” But when a soldier falls out of moral step with the military’s mission and can’t be threatened or cajoled back into line, Aguayo muses, what should an institution built on unity and common purpose do with him?

“How,” he asks, “do you correct a person’s mind?”

It seems to me that his isn’t the mind that needs correcting.

Related posts:

1. Hope, Change, and Disillusionment: Seven Years of War

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.