SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Army 'Rewards' Outspoken Antiwar Soldier
Apr 16, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - One of the leading voices of dissent inside the U.S. Army has been promoted.
Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- who signed a petition to Congress demanding the U.S. withdraw from Iraq and gave interviews to the news shows '60 Minutes' and 'Democracy Now!', as well as IPS detailing his opposition -- has seen his rank upgraded to staff sergeant. Some observers say Cantu's promotion shows the military is now so stressed by the ongoing war it is finding it difficult to crack down on dissent within the ranks.
Few members of the Armed Forces have made their disgust for the war in Iraq more public than Ronn Cantu. The 30-year-old Los Angeles native began speaking out during his second tour in Iraq, launching an online forum for antiwar GIs at Soldiersvoices.net, signing petitions against the war, and giving interviews to major U.S. media outlets while still stationed in Baghdad.
Now, as a staff sergeant, Cantu says he'll teach the soldiers under him to follow the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.
'There's a lot of soldiers out there who wouldn't recognise an unlawful order if it bit them on the behind,' he said. 'So I'm going to make sure the nine guys under me are very aware of the laws of armed conflict. I just want to make sure that they keep their ethics and moral standards and keep out of trouble should anything happen.'
Cantu hopes the soldiers under his command will behave differently than his unit did during his first tour in Iraq.
'We had a policy of 'making a statement',' he told IPS. 'If a bomb went off on our convoy, all of the guns would go off and we'd pretty much just pass punishment on the area we were in: windows, cars on the side of the road, farm animals, sheep. It was a revenge thing.'
Most service members who speak out are not given the same treatment Ronn Cantu got. Like Cantu, Former Marine Corps Segeant Liam Madden signed the Appeal for Redress, an online petition to Congress from active-duty service members demanding an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.
After co-founding the Appeal, Madden began holding workshops about the politics of the war on his base at Quantico, Virginia, bringing down the wrath of his chain of command.
'Basically, they just gave me a lousy jobs and told all my peers they were not allowed to talk to Sergeant Madden,' he said. 'It was a pretty lonely time.'
'All the peers that I had met and become acquainted with were basically shut off and if any of them were to talk with me in the barracks or off duty they were very nervous about it,' he added.
Many observers believe the Army is unable to effectively punish soldiers like Cantu and Madden because it's close to its breaking point. Last month, top Army officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible.
Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of Staff, said, 'The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance.'
'There are certainly reasons for the military to overlook many issues today,' said Jeff Paterson, the project director of Courage to Resist, which helps troops speak out against the war from within the military. He says the depleted state of the Army has military brass increasingly reluctant to expel soldiers who oppose the war. So people who work within the rules -- like Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- are promoted.
'In recruiting, they're overlooking whether you have a high school diploma, they're overlooking whether you have a criminal history, and once you're in the military, they're overlooking injuries -- and now apparently they're even overlooking people who speak out against the war,' Patterson said. 'So long as you do your job, there's a basis for the military to say 'We need your body in Iraq' regardless of whether we do or don't like what you're saying.'
Cantu's said his superiors told him he was being promoted because he's served close to 10 years in the military and has met all training requirements. It's unclear whether Cantu slipped through the cracks or the army purposefully overlooked his activist work.
'I was pretty surprised,' he told IPS, laughing. 'It doesn't make much sense. I'd say honestly I just slipped through some bureaucratic cracks.'
(c) 2008 Inter Press Service
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
SAN FRANCISCO - One of the leading voices of dissent inside the U.S. Army has been promoted.
Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- who signed a petition to Congress demanding the U.S. withdraw from Iraq and gave interviews to the news shows '60 Minutes' and 'Democracy Now!', as well as IPS detailing his opposition -- has seen his rank upgraded to staff sergeant. Some observers say Cantu's promotion shows the military is now so stressed by the ongoing war it is finding it difficult to crack down on dissent within the ranks.
Few members of the Armed Forces have made their disgust for the war in Iraq more public than Ronn Cantu. The 30-year-old Los Angeles native began speaking out during his second tour in Iraq, launching an online forum for antiwar GIs at Soldiersvoices.net, signing petitions against the war, and giving interviews to major U.S. media outlets while still stationed in Baghdad.
Now, as a staff sergeant, Cantu says he'll teach the soldiers under him to follow the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.
'There's a lot of soldiers out there who wouldn't recognise an unlawful order if it bit them on the behind,' he said. 'So I'm going to make sure the nine guys under me are very aware of the laws of armed conflict. I just want to make sure that they keep their ethics and moral standards and keep out of trouble should anything happen.'
Cantu hopes the soldiers under his command will behave differently than his unit did during his first tour in Iraq.
'We had a policy of 'making a statement',' he told IPS. 'If a bomb went off on our convoy, all of the guns would go off and we'd pretty much just pass punishment on the area we were in: windows, cars on the side of the road, farm animals, sheep. It was a revenge thing.'
Most service members who speak out are not given the same treatment Ronn Cantu got. Like Cantu, Former Marine Corps Segeant Liam Madden signed the Appeal for Redress, an online petition to Congress from active-duty service members demanding an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.
After co-founding the Appeal, Madden began holding workshops about the politics of the war on his base at Quantico, Virginia, bringing down the wrath of his chain of command.
'Basically, they just gave me a lousy jobs and told all my peers they were not allowed to talk to Sergeant Madden,' he said. 'It was a pretty lonely time.'
'All the peers that I had met and become acquainted with were basically shut off and if any of them were to talk with me in the barracks or off duty they were very nervous about it,' he added.
Many observers believe the Army is unable to effectively punish soldiers like Cantu and Madden because it's close to its breaking point. Last month, top Army officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible.
Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of Staff, said, 'The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance.'
'There are certainly reasons for the military to overlook many issues today,' said Jeff Paterson, the project director of Courage to Resist, which helps troops speak out against the war from within the military. He says the depleted state of the Army has military brass increasingly reluctant to expel soldiers who oppose the war. So people who work within the rules -- like Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- are promoted.
'In recruiting, they're overlooking whether you have a high school diploma, they're overlooking whether you have a criminal history, and once you're in the military, they're overlooking injuries -- and now apparently they're even overlooking people who speak out against the war,' Patterson said. 'So long as you do your job, there's a basis for the military to say 'We need your body in Iraq' regardless of whether we do or don't like what you're saying.'
Cantu's said his superiors told him he was being promoted because he's served close to 10 years in the military and has met all training requirements. It's unclear whether Cantu slipped through the cracks or the army purposefully overlooked his activist work.
'I was pretty surprised,' he told IPS, laughing. 'It doesn't make much sense. I'd say honestly I just slipped through some bureaucratic cracks.'
(c) 2008 Inter Press Service
SAN FRANCISCO - One of the leading voices of dissent inside the U.S. Army has been promoted.
Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- who signed a petition to Congress demanding the U.S. withdraw from Iraq and gave interviews to the news shows '60 Minutes' and 'Democracy Now!', as well as IPS detailing his opposition -- has seen his rank upgraded to staff sergeant. Some observers say Cantu's promotion shows the military is now so stressed by the ongoing war it is finding it difficult to crack down on dissent within the ranks.
Few members of the Armed Forces have made their disgust for the war in Iraq more public than Ronn Cantu. The 30-year-old Los Angeles native began speaking out during his second tour in Iraq, launching an online forum for antiwar GIs at Soldiersvoices.net, signing petitions against the war, and giving interviews to major U.S. media outlets while still stationed in Baghdad.
Now, as a staff sergeant, Cantu says he'll teach the soldiers under him to follow the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.
'There's a lot of soldiers out there who wouldn't recognise an unlawful order if it bit them on the behind,' he said. 'So I'm going to make sure the nine guys under me are very aware of the laws of armed conflict. I just want to make sure that they keep their ethics and moral standards and keep out of trouble should anything happen.'
Cantu hopes the soldiers under his command will behave differently than his unit did during his first tour in Iraq.
'We had a policy of 'making a statement',' he told IPS. 'If a bomb went off on our convoy, all of the guns would go off and we'd pretty much just pass punishment on the area we were in: windows, cars on the side of the road, farm animals, sheep. It was a revenge thing.'
Most service members who speak out are not given the same treatment Ronn Cantu got. Like Cantu, Former Marine Corps Segeant Liam Madden signed the Appeal for Redress, an online petition to Congress from active-duty service members demanding an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.
After co-founding the Appeal, Madden began holding workshops about the politics of the war on his base at Quantico, Virginia, bringing down the wrath of his chain of command.
'Basically, they just gave me a lousy jobs and told all my peers they were not allowed to talk to Sergeant Madden,' he said. 'It was a pretty lonely time.'
'All the peers that I had met and become acquainted with were basically shut off and if any of them were to talk with me in the barracks or off duty they were very nervous about it,' he added.
Many observers believe the Army is unable to effectively punish soldiers like Cantu and Madden because it's close to its breaking point. Last month, top Army officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible.
Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of Staff, said, 'The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance.'
'There are certainly reasons for the military to overlook many issues today,' said Jeff Paterson, the project director of Courage to Resist, which helps troops speak out against the war from within the military. He says the depleted state of the Army has military brass increasingly reluctant to expel soldiers who oppose the war. So people who work within the rules -- like Sergeant Ronn Cantu -- are promoted.
'In recruiting, they're overlooking whether you have a high school diploma, they're overlooking whether you have a criminal history, and once you're in the military, they're overlooking injuries -- and now apparently they're even overlooking people who speak out against the war,' Patterson said. 'So long as you do your job, there's a basis for the military to say 'We need your body in Iraq' regardless of whether we do or don't like what you're saying.'
Cantu's said his superiors told him he was being promoted because he's served close to 10 years in the military and has met all training requirements. It's unclear whether Cantu slipped through the cracks or the army purposefully overlooked his activist work.
'I was pretty surprised,' he told IPS, laughing. 'It doesn't make much sense. I'd say honestly I just slipped through some bureaucratic cracks.'
(c) 2008 Inter Press Service
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy