Interview with Sgt. Kevin Benderman

You may recall that Sgt. Benderman has been charged with violating certain military codes by refusing to redeploy to Iraq.

ZNet: Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone, a Fort Stewart spokesman, was quoted by MSNBC on January 20th. He said—referring to you, Kevin—“We’re still going to treat him with honor and respect. He’s a soldier, he’s wearing the uniform and he’s a veteran,” Whetstone said. “But when regulations are broken and orders are disobeyed, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”

Now, the same Nuremburg Tribunal says that “the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.” But it says more: “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.” Can you tell us a little bit about that “moral choice” today?

KB: Well, I’ll tell you where I’ve exercised that moral choice. When that captain, who I was with me over there, ordered the people—including me—to shoot small children that were throwing rocks at us, and I refused to obey that order, I exercised that moral choice in that particular case, that particular incident. When that order was given, we ignored it. We all looked at each other like, that man has lost his mind. So I would say that everyone who was with me at that time exercised their moral choice not to follow that illegal order.

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Can't we teach our children to leave war behind in history where it belongs? We have come to realize that slavery was an obsolete institution and we realized that human sacrifice was an obsolete institution and we left them behind us. When are we going to have the same enlightened attitude about war?

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I look at my stepchildren and realize that war has no place with me in giving them what they need to survive the trials and tribulations of early adulthood. And if you look at all the time soldiers lose in the course of fighting wars such as birthdays and anniversaries, their children going to the senior prom and college graduations, and other things which can never be replaced, then you have to come to the understanding that war steals more from people than just their sense of humanity, it also steals some of that humanity from their family.

I have learned from first hand experience that war is the destroyer of everything that is good in the world, it turns our young into soulless killers and we tell them that they are heroes when they master the "art" of killing. That is a very deranged mindset in my opinion. It destroys the environment, life, and the resources which could be used to create more life advancing endeavors.

War should be left behind us; we should evolve to a higher mindset even if it means going against what most people tell us in this country, such as that we can never stop fighting with other people in the world. I have made the decision to not participate in war any longer and some people in this country cannot comprehend that concept but to me it is simple. I have chosen not to take part in war and it was easy to come to that decision.

I cannot tell anyone else how to live his or her life but I have determined how I want to live mine--by not participating in war any longer, as I feel that it is stupid and also that it is against everything that is good about the world.
  ZMag article

Monica and Kevin Benderman

Sgt. Benderman can be contacted through POAC by email (put Benderman in the subject line). Other soldiers who are refusing to serve in this occupation are listed on my webpage on the "Wall of Honor".