When Kimberley Rivera shipped out to serve in Iraq with the U.S. Army in the fall of 2006, she saw herself rebuilding homes, feeding the hungry and helping children.
Barely three months into her 15-month mission, Rivera, a gate guard in Baghdad, had had enough.
A young mother herself, she says she was haunted by the sight of children crying, forever traumatized by the war.
While on leave for two weeks, Rivera says, she decided she couldn't go back to war.
We are U.S. military servicemembers and veterans who have refused or are currently refusing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their hats adorned with artificial flowers identify them at many of the protests in which I participate. The
Grannies also show up on New York City's Union Square to sing their signature anti-war lyrics to well known tunes.
When Benjamin Lewis was 17, he joined the Marine
Corps' delayed entry program, looking for a new direction in his life.
He had dropped out of school and was struggling. The military seemed
like a good option.
After two deployments to Iraq, and an
honorable discharge, Lewis, now 23, recently learned that he might be
involuntarily redeployed to the region. He's decided that he's not
going back, even if it means facing imprisonment.
The road to that decision was a long one.
Citing the constitutional protections against being tried twice for the same crime, a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that 1st Lt. Ehren Watada cannot face a second court martial on three of five counts resulting from his high-profile 2006 refusal to deploy to Iraq with a Fort Lewis brigade.
The ruling by Judge Benjamin Settle, however, leaves open the possibility of a second prosecution on two other counts involving conduct unbecoming an officer.
