Pacifists prepare for possibility of
draft
By IAN JONES
Washington
President Bush has assured the nation that no military draft is
being considered, but conscientious objectors are taking no chances.
In a session some might think of as a flashback to Vietnam War-era
activities, the Center on Conscience & War held a draft counselor training
seminar here Sept. 30 in the Methodist Building, just across the street from
the U.S. Capitol. A small group of mainly church-affiliated counselors
attended.
The center, formerly the National Interreligious Service Board for
Conscientious Objectors, was founded in 1940 by a coalition of religious
organizations in response to the poor treatment of conscientious objectors
during World War I and in anticipation of U.S. involvement in the war in
Europe. They were pariah, said J.E. McNeil, executive director of
the center, which now promotes conscientious objector rights and protects
individual conscientious objectors.
The four-hour training session was prompted, McNeil said, by
the ceaseless ringing of the centers telephone since the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But for the center, this is business as
usual. Like the military, conscientious objectors have to be prepared well in
advance of an armed conflict. Prior to Sept. 11 the centers main
job has been handling some 2,000 calls and hundreds of e-mails a month from men
and women trying to get out of the military. Many members of the military who
call tell counselors they joined under the Defense Departments Delayed
Enlistment Program, part of a marketing campaign that promises college tuition
and other perks to teenagers and has an annual price tag of $24 million.
Just because theres this crisis, the peace movement
and my organization are not doing anything different than weve been doing
for the last 20 years, or the last 60 years, said McNeil. What
weve always done and will continue to do is try to make a world where war
is not considered necessary.
These days, however, the groups training sessions are
spurred on, in part, by the five-to-10-year conflict the president has
projected. A protracted ground war in Afghanistan would mean a thinning of the
military ranks, McNeil said. That in turn would cause a drop in patriotic
fervor and thus in volunteers for the armed forces. Add in the
possibility of a second major action, say the Chinese invade Taiwan or want to
take over more of the Asian part of Russia, and there is further need to fill
the ranks, McNeil said. To her, the Sept. 11 attacks marked the first
step toward such actions -- and toward a draft, she said.
Im not saying either of those will definitely happen,
but it would be foolish of us not to be prepared, said McNeil. The
military says they always have to be ready if theres an invasion or a
war. We have to be prepared as well, to respond in a reasonable
measure.
At the Sunday training session, McNeil and the centers
counseling coordinator, Bill Galvin, explained the intricacies of the
Pentagons two separate draft policies. The counselors will then explain
them to young people who face recruitment, and to those faced with required
selective service registration, wartime or not.
The concern today, said Galvin, is that the governments
emergency draft plan gives conscientious objectors a miniscule window of
opportunity -- about 10 days -- to claim their status before they are shipped
off to boot camp. The key for conscientious objectors, he said, is to create an
information packet far in advance of recruitment, a personal history of their
moral objection to war. This should include a photocopy of their selective
service postcard (complete with an anti-war comment written above the required
personal data), proof of registration with a church, and support letters from
parents, teachers or clergy.
Pacifism has taken a few knocks since Sept. 11, said McNeil. She
cited an incredible but not surprising Sept. 25 Washington Post
op-ed article in which Michael Kelly concludes that American pacifists are
objectively pro-terrorist and evil.
Such criticisms are not new. Conscientious objectors were
imprisoned during World War I and interned in work camps in WWII. They are
often beaten, spat on and labeled communists or whatever current curse
their detractors think is appropriate, said McNeil. The military is more
accommodating to conscientious objectors today, but the center regularly gets
calls from an Army recruiter who berates the group as evil and threatens
violence.
I spend a lot of time explaining to people that I know what
Im asking is tough, said McNeil. War is a lot easier than
what we are suggesting. She uses parenting as a comparison: Its a
lot easier to spank children than to teach them right from wrong. But physical
punishment fails in the long run, she said.
Many of my constituents beliefs are exclusively
faith-based, in the sense that God said it, they believe it and that settles
it. I share that view, but I also think that war doesnt work, she
said. People say pacifism doesnt work, either, but we havent
really given it a long-term try, have we?
Its clear to me that weve been dealing with
terrorism by trying to blow up whoever we think is a terrorist. And all we get
are bigger, better and more effective terrorists, said McNeil. It
took centuries to get here. Hopefully it wont take centuries to learn war
isnt an effective tool.
McNeil understands the risk of pacifist statements at times of
national crisis. She has heard recent horror stories of arrest, harassment and
beatings of those who have stood up to speak their conscience. But if
Im not willing to stand up for what I believe in, she said,
Im a poorer person.
Or as Galvin puts it, relating an ironic comment hes heard
often of late: The way some people are talking, youd think Jesus
was a pacifist.
Ian Jones is a freelance writer living in Arlington,
Va.
National Catholic Reporter, October 19,
2001
|