US soldier refuses to serve in 'illegal Iraq war'

US soldier refuses to serve in 'illegal Iraq war'
	
May 16 10:49 AM US/Eastern
Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.

"I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in 
school," the now 24-year-old told AFP.

"I was 'filet mignon' for recruiters. They started phoning me when I was 
in 10th grade," or around 16 years old, he added.

Chiroux joined the US army straight out of high school nearly six years 
ago, and worked his way up from private to sergeant.

He served in Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines and was 
due to be deployed next month in Iraq.

On Thursday, he refused to go, saying he considers Iraq an illegal war.

"I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to 
declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier 
will not be deploying to Iraq," Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda 
of a congressional building in Wa****ngton.

"My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my 
core values to sup****t an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I 
refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation," he said, as a dozen 
veterans of the five-year-old Iraq war looked on.

Minutes earlier, Chiroux had cried openly as he listened to former 
comrades-in-arms testify before members of Congress about the failings 
of the Iraq war.

The testimonies were the first before Congress by Iraq veterans who have 
turned against the five-year-old war.

Former army sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith told a half-dozen US lawmakers 
and scores of people who packed into a small hearing room of "lawless 
murders, looting and the abuse of countless Iraqis."

He spoke of the psychologically fragile men and women who return from 
Iraq, to find little help or treatment offered from official circles.

Goldsmith said he had "self-medicated" for several months to treat the 
wounds of the war.

Another soldier told AFP he had to boost his dosage of medication to 
treat anxiety and social agoraphobia -- two of many lingering mental 
wounds he carries since his deployments in Iraq -- before testifying.

Some 300,000 of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have served in Iraq and 
Afghanistan suffer from the psychological traumas of post-traumatic 
stress disorder, depression or both, an independent study showed last
month.

A group of veterans sitting in the hearing room gazed blankly as their 
comrades' testimonies shattered the official version that the US effort 
in Iraq is succeeding.

Almost to a man, the soldiers who testified denounced serious flaws in 
the chain of command in Iraq.

Luis Montalvan, a former army captain, accused high-ranking US officers 
of numerous failures in Iraq, including turning a blind eye to massive 
fraud on the part of US contractors.

Ex-Marine Jason Lemieux told how a senior officer had altered a re****t 
he had written because it slammed US troops of using excessive force, 
firing off thousands of rounds of machine gun fire and hundreds of 
grenades in the face of a feeble four rounds of enemy fire.

Goldsmith accused US officials of censor****p.

"Everyone who manages a blog, Facebook or Myspace out of Iraq has to 
register every video, picture, do***ent of any event they do on 
mission," Goldsmith told AFP after the hearing.

"You're almost always denied before you are allowed to send them home."

Officials take "hard facts and slice them into small pieces to make them 
presentable to the secretary of state or the president -- and all with 
the intent of furthering the occupation of Iraq," Goldsmith added.

Chiroux is one of thousands of US soldiers who have deserted since the 
Iraq war began in 2003, according to figures issued last year by the US 
army.

But while many seek refuge in Canada, the young soldier vowed to stay in 
the United States to fight "whatever charges the army levels at me."

The US army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without 
leave for 30 days.

Chiroux stood fast in his resolve to not re****t for duty on June 15.

"I cannot deploy to Iraq, carry a weapon and not be part of the 
problem," he told AFP.


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