(Photo credit: Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)The Cradle
More and more US troops deployed to West Asia are expressing doubts about fighting in the war against Iran, including having to “die for Israel,” the Huffington Post reported on 23 March.
A veteran and reservist who mentors younger officers told HuffPost that troops she speaks with are expressing a loss of faith after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped push US President Donald Trump to go to war against Iran.
“I’m hearing out of service members’ mouths the words, ’We do not want to die for Israel – we don’t want to be political pawns,” she said.
“I’ve shared conscientious objector information six times in the past two weeks, and I’ve been in the military almost 20 years – I’ve never had people reach out this way,” the first reservist continued.
Interviews with active-duty soldiers, reservists, and advocacy groups conducted by HuffPost found that many US troops expressed feeling vulnerable, overwhelming stress, frustration, and disillusionment to the extent that they wished to leave the military.
Interviews further revealed that troops are worried about inadequate protection from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones targeting US bases in the Gulf region.
“Getting random indirect fire is not the same as watching the entire gym and coffee shop and some dorms get blown up from a door less than 50 meters away,” said one service member.
Thirteen troops have been killed in the war so far, and at least 232 have been wounded.
White House officials are now speaking of launching a limited ground invasion to seize Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.
A ground operation would be “an absolute disaster … we don’t have a plan for that,” said a military official who is treating service members evacuated from the Gulf to a US military hospital in Germany. “We can’t even fully defend a single land base in the theater.”
Mike Prysner, the executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, said at least one new military service member now contacts the organization daily.
On Friday, Prysner said his group is handling “expedited” objector applications by US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel who were scheduled to deploy within days.
Three Navy ships carrying 2,200 more marines have been deployed to West Asia, two US officials told ABC News on Sunday.
And Matt Howard, the co-director of the group About Face: Veterans Against The War, said his organization has been helping more active-duty troops understand their rights to leave the military as conscientious objectors.
“Folks have the right to options, including conscientious objector status. My understanding is that more and more folks are going that particular route. We’re definitely finding ourselves having more of those conversations than we have in a long time,” Howard stated.
Those wishing to obtain conscientious objector status say they were influenced by the US Tomahawk missile strike on an elementary school in the Iranian town of Minab that killed more than 175 people, including at least 165 schoolgirls.
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