I'm sure Kevin Benderman counts this as a great result of his own action. He's paying a very big price for it.John Hein, a retired Marine Corps captain [...] served in the invasion of Iraq. He was a maintenance officer who followed the first thrust.[...]
This year, Hein began to re-evaluate his feelings about U.S.-led wars. He heard a National Public Radio story about Kevin Benderman, a soldier who applied to become a conscientious objector after a tour in Iraq.
Hein, 43, fired off an e-mail, angry about the interview. It didn't jibe with the world he still identified with, where he and fellow Marines got together and bragged about being America's Spartans.
The e-mail caught the radio programmer's attention. The next thing he knew, Hein was accepting an invitation to be interviewed, and then, later, to debate Benderman on the air.
As he listened to Benderman's side of the argument, he began to wonder.
"He (Benderman) couldn't put away his decency," Hein said.
Hein suddenly realized that's what he had been doing. He had spent his whole career trying not to think about the reasons behind going to war, not to judge the validity of the conflicts, not to feel the moral dilemma that comes with killing.
He cried after the interview.
And became a war protester.
Sign On San Diego article
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Sgt. Benderman's website.
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