It’s been a long war for all of us. We’re weary of a mission that doesn’t provide us with tangible goals or conclusion. We’ve lost the momentum that encourages the support of our leadership to make the right decisions. And when we look past the politics, election rhetoric, and endless debates, all that’s left are the soldiers still sitting in the middle of the desert on their first, second, or third deployments. All that remains are soldiers waiting to follow orders for an unknown cause against an unknown enemy.

One of those soldiers has spoken out not against the cause, but against the order to take another person’s life.

Spc. Benjamin Stewart of the 2nd Striker Cavalry Regiment refused to deploy on his second tour of duty in Iraq. His explanation?

Stewart told the court that he refused to deploy because of what he experienced during his last deployment to Mosul, Iraq, from 2004 to 2005.

“I saw a mother and her infant child get killed in crossfire. I saw children lose their limbs in a car bomb. One boy lost an arm and another lost both legs,” he said.

After that mission, Stewart said, he decided he could not deploy again.

“I’m not a pacifist or peacenik or against the war in Iraq. From the beginning, I believe the war was justified, (but) I could not live with myself if I killed another person,” he said.

He knew what was right and what was wrong. This young Specialist has blown the whistle on the mission and his conscious. But the Army has disagreed. The Army swiftly sought his punishment after missing his units movement to deploy on January 7th, 2008. On February 22, 2008, Spc. Steward was sentenced to spend six months in jail before being thrown out of the Army.

It’s true that the most basic function of a military is to kill. And it’s also true that we are an all volunteer military with full knowledge of this function. But consideration of a man’s morality should be taken into account. If a person kills because he or she is forced to do so and not because they truly feel it’s warranted, do we condemn that person? If a person has killed and knows in their heart it would destroy them to do so again, do we put them in jail?

Apparently, our government has affirmed this.

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