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US Army Sergeant Travis Bishop, 26, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced Friday to one year in prison after being convicted of going AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and disobeying lawful orders in connection with his refusal to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The sentencing of Sergeant Bishop follows closely on the heels of the conviction of Army Specialist Victor Agosto, 24, who was sentenced the previous week to 30 days in jail and demoted to private for his refusal to fight in Afghanistan on the grounds that the US occupation was immoral and unjust. Bishop and Agosto are both stationed in Fort Hood, Texas and share the same attorney, James Branum.
Bishop’s punishment proved to be more severe than Agosto’s. In addition to being sentenced to one year in prison and demoted from sergeant to private, Bishop will lose two-thirds of his pay for a full year and receive a bad conduct discharge from the military upon his release from prison. Branum has pledged to appeal the conviction.
Bishop’s doubts about his involvement in the military had been building for some time. In a statement released by Bishop in May, he describes returning home from Iraq, where he served for 14 months, to a hero’s welcome: “That was the first time I felt unsettled over what I had done overseas. My hand was shook, my back was patted, and every night my belly was burning, full of free alcohol. I was a veteran of a foreign war, hailed as a hero, and yet I felt ... unnerved, anxious.”
He went on to say, “I felt as if I had a big secret inside me that threatened to burst out of me at any moment, exposing what I really was to the rest of the world ... but I couldn’t figure out what the secret was. Not for a long, long time.”
Bishop describes no longer being able to understand why the US military was in Iraq. “Nothing sat right,” he said. The young sergeant turned toward religion in his crisis and began studying the Bible. He soon came to the conclusion that he could no longer place himself in a situation in which he could be ordered to kill another human being. When he was ordered to return to combat, this time to Afghanistan, Bishop decided not to go. He would file for Conscientious Objector status, going AWOL in order to do so.
Bishop maintains he was unaware of his right to apply for Conscientious Objector (CO) status until just days before his unit was set to deploy to Afghanistan. This assertion has been verified by Bishop’s commanding officer, Captain Christopher Hall, who testified that he had provided his soldiers with no information regarding CO status. Bishop, having discovered his rights too late to follow the standard CO procedure, made the decision to go AWOL for one week in order to prepare his application for CO status.
In a statement explaining his actions, Bishop said, “I left because I did not feel that I would have a sympathetic, understanding command structure to fully take my problems to, and also to give myself time to prepare for my CO application process, and the legal battle I’m currently fighting.” Following the completion of the application, Bishop turned himself in to authorities to answer for his absence from duty.
From the start, Bishop’s trial took on an anti-democratic character, with participants openly contemptuous toward the solider. One of the jurors fell asleep during the trial. Another repeatedly shook his head in disgust as Branum argued Bishop’s case.
Fort Hood chaplain Lt. Col. Ron Leininger testified against Bishop, asserting to the court that the sergeant’s religious convictions were not sincere enough to convince the chaplain to recommend him for CO status. The chaplain’s written report on Bishop contained errors, including calling Bishop by the wrong name. The chaplain told the court his interview with Bishop lasted for a period of 45 minutes. Challenging this claim, Bishop later told Truthout.org, “The Chaplain only spoke with me for 20 minutes, took two calls on his cell phone, and was texting the whole time.”
In his own defense, Bishop offered a statement to the court which reads, “[W]hat most Soldiers don’t realize is that CO is not only a regulation, it’s a right. To file for conscientious objector status is an individual right of every Soldier in the Army. This right ensures that Soldiers with the beliefs that I share have the opportunity to request to be discharged due to said beliefs. But, unlike other regulations in the military, this one remains unpublicized.”
Bishop’s statement discusses the military culture he struggles against. “Since day one of anyone’s career in the military,” says Bishop, “fierceness and bravado are pounded into every potential Soldier, and fear and doubt are viewed as weaknesses. This leaves Soldiers that feel as I feel in quite a predicament.
“Does a Soldier who feels as I feel tell someone in their Command? Or a peer? And risk persecution and ridicule? I have never heard the word ‘coward’ used more than when I say the words conscientious objector around a group of Soldiers.”
The rate of desertion in the US Army has risen 80 percent since the Iraq War began in 2003. Soldiers, many of them even younger than Bishop and Agosto, have been forced into bloody colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars which have been associated with torture, rape, secret prison networks, the death of masses of Iraqis and an increasing number of Afghan civilians, and an assault on the most basic democratic rights. It is taking its toll, not only on the local populations, but on those rank and file soldiers who are engaged in its prosecution. Suicide rates among soldiers are at a record high. Large numbers of soldiers leave combat with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
It is difficult to gauge the level of resistance to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan within the military, but it is safe to say Bishop and Agosto are far from alone in their sentiments. The Pentagon has chosen to make an example of Bishop, whose only “crime” has been to refuse to take part in an illegal war of aggression. His punishment is meant as a warning to any military personnel considering opposition.
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| fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity | |
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very very frustrating
the paragraph before last doesn't add anything to the story at all, though. whatever reporter put that in there needs a slap in the face. |
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can u plz elaborate on that because I see that paragraph being one the most important as well as underlying so many fundamental points to the whole article so I'm completely oblivious to your view |
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| fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity | |
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I probably won't be responding for a bit tho as I'm about to call it a day / Night (2o1?) |
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| fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity | |
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SakiSaki  Sweden. Aug 19 2009 10:29. Posts 9685 | | | |
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| what wackass site is this nigga? | |
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TenBagger United States. Aug 19 2009 10:59. Posts 2018 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 09:29 SakiSaki wrote:
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a soldier refusing to go to war because of morals is like a stripper refusing to take off her clothes because of morals.
I'm as big an anti war person as there is on this forum but this soldier has no case. No one forced him to join the army and if you do, you are basically agreeing to check your personal opinions at the door and to do whatever you are told. That is the nature of armed forces since the beginning of time and if he isn't comfortable with blindly doing what he is told to do, he should have never joined the army in the first place.
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curtinsea United States. Aug 19 2009 12:14. Posts 576 | | | |
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curtinsea United States. Aug 19 2009 12:36. Posts 576 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 09:59 TenBagger wrote:
I'm as big an anti war person as there is on this forum . . .
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Still? Seriously, clearly the anti war agenda was really an anti-Bush agenda and nothing more. Why are there no daily body counts? Where are the images of the coffins coming home that the media fought so hard for the right to show? Where is the outcry over escalation of a war against goat herders in the mountains (try and show me how war is going to change that region).
Anyone who doesn't think there is a media bias in the US is off their rocker. |
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NewbSaibot United States. Aug 19 2009 13:04. Posts 4946 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 11:36 curtinsea wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 19 2009 09:59 TenBagger wrote:
I'm as big an anti war person as there is on this forum . . .
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Still? Seriously, clearly the anti war agenda was really an anti-Bush agenda and nothing more. Why are there no daily body counts? Where are the images of the coffins coming home that the media fought so hard for the right to show? Where is the outcry over escalation of a war against goat herders in the mountains (try and show me how war is going to change that region).
Anyone who doesn't think there is a media bias in the US is off their rocker.
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Why does their need to be? The war is ending, troops are being removed, a schedule has been set. |
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NewbSaibot United States. Aug 19 2009 13:10. Posts 4946 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 09:59 TenBagger wrote:
a soldier refusing to go to war because of morals is like a stripper refusing to take off her clothes because of morals.
I'm as big an anti war person as there is on this forum but this soldier has no case. No one forced him to join the army and if you do, you are basically agreeing to check your personal opinions at the door and to do whatever you are told. That is the nature of armed forces since the beginning of time and if he isn't comfortable with blindly doing what he is told to do, he should have never joined the army in the first place.
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Oh cmon now. The average age of enlisted personnel is 19. Most of these kids dont have their shit together. People join for a variety of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with defending their country. They join b/c they're tired of flipping burgers. They join to get out of a bad situation at home. They join because they have absolutely zero prospects in life. They join out of complete and utter naivety after watching Top Gun. They join with the intention of serving in non combat related roles which fail to pan out and are stuck in infantry. They join thinking they can get paid to march around all day and with any luck there wont be any conflicts thus they never have to actually fight. They joined failing to understand what taking a human life would really be like.
And you know what? These actually represent rather legitimate arguments for joining the military. Hell, half our military is already full of fuck up's, so if some kid joins and is assigned to drive fork lifts all day, thats one less idiot who might be causing trouble in the civilian world. Plus he's doing a service, he's moving barrels of water from warehouse A to warehouse B. Barrels need moving ya know. |
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curtinsea United States. Aug 19 2009 13:20. Posts 576 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 12:04 NewbSaibot wrote:
Why does their need to be? The war is ending, troops are being removed, a schedule has been set. |
Really? When does it end? Did we win? |
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TenBagger United States. Aug 19 2009 15:03. Posts 2018 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 11:36 curtinsea wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 19 2009 09:59 TenBagger wrote:
I'm as big an anti war person as there is on this forum . . .
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Still? Seriously, clearly the anti war agenda was really an anti-Bush agenda and nothing more. Why are there no daily body counts? Where are the images of the coffins coming home that the media fought so hard for the right to show? Where is the outcry over escalation of a war against goat herders in the mountains (try and show me how war is going to change that region).
Anyone who doesn't think there is a media bias in the US is off their rocker.
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obviously anti-war was related to anti-bush cuz bush started the fucking war. he was solely responsible for this entire thing. |
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curtinsea United States. Aug 19 2009 16:06. Posts 576 | | |
but now that Bush is gone the war isn't a problem anymore? |
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hopefully TenBagger and Newb respectively answer your two simple questions
mega props to you curtin sea
v good & well said article thanks
you're doing such a fine fine job hitting the bottom line points that I do not want to interupt the discussion too much
I really hope it continues
+ Show Spoiler +
so as not to derail, I will spoiler the one trivial detail u didn't hit..
a response to Saki
+ Show Spoiler +
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| fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity | |
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NewbSaibot United States. Aug 19 2009 17:55. Posts 4946 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 12:20 curtinsea wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 19 2009 12:04 NewbSaibot wrote:
Why does their need to be? The war is ending, troops are being removed, a schedule has been set. |
Really? When does it end? Did we win?
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Combat troop removal from Iraq is scheduled for 2011. We lost. |
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TenBagger United States. Aug 20 2009 08:00. Posts 2018 | | |
| | On August 19 2009 15:06 curtinsea wrote:
but now that Bush is gone the war isn't a problem anymore? |
current president didn't start the war, voted against the war originally and has indicated through words and actions that he is committed to ending the war. therefore, anti-war movement is not as riled as it was when we had a president who started the war and was committed to the war. |
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