Right To Life: A Soldier Speaks Out
 

January 25 2005
Counterbias.com
Kevin M. Benderman
 

I have come to the conclusion that the creator does not want us to fight wars or to leave our brothers to die in hunger or disease--for we have been given whatever is necessary to provide all men with everything needed to get by. I have been led to question what I could change to better myself as a man.

Why not help another human being that needs what I can help them with? I have ignored this question for far too long. I have turned my head when a homeless person asks for help. I have taken advantage of others when I should have been offering a hand up. I have done things in my life that I am not proud of. I have not lived a perfect life so I don't claim to have the authority to tell anyone else how to live theirs.

Some are asking me why I have concluded that I can no longer take part in an organization whose primary purpose is to kill. People ask how I can spend ten years in the military and now want to get out, or how I can abandon the people that I have served with. I tell them that I've seen the wrong way that I had been living and that changes are necessary. Changes that will let me live a better life, allowing me to positively contribute to human society.

I have done things that aren't beneficial to mankind. To continue in that vein would be detrimental to my growth as a human being. And now that I have seen the errors of my ways, wouldn't it be prudent to change the way I conduct myself? Why should I continue with what I see as self-destructive behavior? And why should I continue a way of life that does nothing to alleviate some problems that have plagued humanity far too long? If a drug addict learns that the drugs are killing him then he is expected to stop using drugs. That leads me to ask the question, "If what I am doing is killing me spiritually, why should I continue?"

Some claim that war brings peace. If this is the case, why do we not have peace in the world? There have been wars for as long as I've lived, yet true world peace is nonexistent. We are taught in school about the American Revolution and the two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Grenada, Beirut, the Persian Gulf War, and now Operation Iraqi Freedom. I ask, when will it be enough?

Do we want our grandkids to learn the "art" of war? Should we teach them to throw hand grenades and learn how to shoot center mass of a human being in order to kill them? Or should we be teaching them to hit home runs and catch fly balls? There is so much more to teach our young besides the "honor" of killing.

War should be left behind us in the memories of history. Better results in peace could be realized if we were to reach out to our fellow man with an understanding instead of aligning them in our rifle sights. This is a concept that will take time for people to understand, but isn't it time to start trying?

We have recently observed the day that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.--shouldn't we remember his words and try to live them?

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"

Why can't we take such a view for peace in our country and expand it to the nations of the world? It made sense then and it makes sense now. All men are created equal.

And if is the case that all men are equal, why I am facing the possibility of seven years in Federal Prison because I do not want to kill another human being?

Sgt. Kevin Benderman has become morally opposed to war after seeing it firsthand during his first Iraq tour. He faces a possible court-martial after failing to deploy with his unit.

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