“Every day in combat training you had to yell out ‘Kill! Kill!’ and we would get into trouble if you didn’t shout it out, so often I would just mouth it so I didn’t get into trouble.” The recruits were also encouraged to hurt each other during hand-to- hand combat training. “I couldn’t do that so they would pair me up with someone who was very violent or aggressive.”
Mr Funk said many recruits were envious of those who were being sent to the Gulf. “They would say things like, ‘Kill a raghead for me – I’m so jealous.’
Stephen Eagle Funk, 20, a marine reserve who was due to be sent for combat duty, is currently on “unauthorised absence” from his unit. He faces a possible court martial and time in military prison for his action. , so begins the Guardians’s report on America’s first conscientious objector of this war.
Funk told the reporter:
“I would rather take my punishment now than live with what I would have to do [in Iraq] for the rest of my life. I woul be going in knowing that it was wrong and that would be hypocritical…. War is about destruction and violence and death. It is young men fighting old men’s wars. It is not the answer, it just ravages the land of the battleground. I know it’s wrong but other people in the military have been programmed to think it is OK.”
Telling the truth is courageous. Putting oneself in harm’s way for one’s beliefs is courageous. Putting the lives of others before one’s own is courageous. Standing alone against a tide of evil is courageous.
It is men like soon-to-be ex-marine Stephen Eagle Funk who are the true moral warriors — the real “good guys,” the heroes of this war who bravely take a stand against the evil that seems to be taking over the hearts of too many of my countrymen.
Kalilily Time
Just an old lady talking to herself
I’m too lazy to look right now (and too dial-uppy) but is there an e-mail address that I can sent encouraging words of support to?
I saw this article yesterday. Thank you for putting it out there. Yes, Stephen Eagle Funk is a true moral warrior. I tried searching again for the link, but about a week ago two English military men already in Iraq, left because they could not justify within, the brutality of their military and the U.S. military toward Iraqi civilians. I do not support people that kill because their administration told them to kill.
I emailed the San Jose Peace Center (http://www.sanjosepeace.org/) and asked where letters or emails of support for Funk can be sent. I’ll write a post and share than info when I get it.
Let’s face it, appeasers like you would never want war for any reason, not while President Bush is in the White House. You have decided to use this false concern for the Iraqi people as your excuse for labeling a war to oust the war-criminal leader as “evil”.
How can you claim to care for Iraqis but desire to leave them in the hands of Hussein’s regime? How can you ignore the fact that virtually every Iraqi not under his thumb wants him gone? You are the real hypocrite, your opposition to this war has no basis in morality or fact.
hmm. Nowhere have I ever said that I don’t oppose and abhor Hussein’s reign. We would have done better to rally the members of the UN to devise a way to deal with him that didn’t involve murdering innocent Iraqis (and Americans) and destroying the land that is the cradle of all of our civilizations. You need to read more of the posts on this weblog to get a clearer view of just how moral my stand it.
Chamberlain’s legacy of kneeling to evil lives on, I see. Talk and talk and compromise, then talk some more while Saddam has his way. You would be happy to see countless years of barbarism and torture heaped on Iraqis in order to suit some mindless, hopelessly deluded 1st World liberal aesthetic of “no war ever”. Pseudo peace that doesn’t represent the wishes of any Iraqi who is free to speak without winding up in a torture chamber. You would be a monster if you weren’t so pathetic. We’re not talking about people in a movie here, we’re talking about real people who need help, help that 12 more years of talking won’t bring, help that Uday Hussein’s raping won’t bring.
http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/blog/archives/000733.html
http://www.wounded.netfirms.com/blog.html
Dear NB (No Brains?),
If you truly feel this way, why aren’t you in uniform and in Iraq doing the fighting? Because it’s easier to send other people’s sons and daughters to do it for you? In your philosophy(?), killing leads to peace and harmony — which is true as long as you kill everybody who disagrees with you (which in your case would like result in a total population of 1). And one can only assume yours is a godless philosophy or else you might be deterred by the fundamental, “Thou shalt not kill.” There are always other ways to solve problems, but you have to have brains and courage to seek them and make them work. Clearly, that lets you out of the picture.
Way to go Myrln, thanks for making my point! My argument too complicated for your little brainy-poo? Let me simplify, bitch.
Saddam=bad
Talking in the hope that Saddam will one day just go away=stupid
Everything in my previous post and in your response shows that so-called peace protesters have no case. You are trying to find dignity in cowardice, dignity in pretending that you are acting with the interests of Iraqi people in mind, dignity in your utter ignorance of Middle East history and politics. You can lob the middle-school insults, sure, but history, logic, and ethics are all on the side of those not ready to give in to Saddam. Not to mention 99.9% of the Iraqi exiles. As for “Thou Shalt not kill” read 1 Samuel 15:33 if you want to start quoting the Bible. That’s the way the God of the Bible deals with His enemies.
Compare and contrast, in your blue test booklets, the following: The utter ignorance of Middle East history and politics of (1) the antiwar movement and (2) the Iraq war planners.
You have 60 minutes, at which time the proctor will come collect your test booklets.
Saddam = bad
Bush = bad
Murder = bad
Three bads don’t make a good.
Iraqis deserve to be free of Saddam. (The exiles already are and they’re not the ones we’re killing over there.) Innocent Iraquis don’t deserve to be killed in order to get rid of Saddam. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater!
Dear NB (No Balls?),
Once again: if you’re so hot to kill, why aren’t you there in Iraq in uniform where you could satisfy your infantile bloodlust? Just think: all them towelheads just waiting for you to shoot them down. Really, you need to address that question if you are to have any credibility whatsoever.
And Samuel? Ah, yes, the Old Testament God. Isn’t he the same one in whose name in a past war the village had to be destroyed to save it?
p.s. So in middle school, what, were you the victim of insults?
Since this discussion for you, myrln, is about me, and not the war, let’s say that I’m a coward and a hypocrite (like you) or maybe not even living in the USA, maybe I’m a 72 year-old Australian or a quadriplegic.
Now what?
What I posted is still 100% true. End of story.
(Feel free to discuss my post with the others in the trailer park).
um, NB not that it really should make a difference, but since you brought up “trailer park” — I assume as a symbol of the stereotypical dumb “trailor trash” — (and you began leading this discussion away from the war and in a more personal direction — see your first “pathetic” comment) let me just say that I know for a fact that myrln served honorably in the American armed forces, has a graduate degree, and has taught on the university level. I also know for a fact that one other commentor here tested at the genius level. As for me, I have a graduate degree, post graduate degree work, and have 63 years worth of observing the fallacies and fatalities of war. One of my friends also is a therapist who works with veterans who are afflicted with serious post-traumatic stress.
Care to share your background and/or credentials with us?
Dear NB,
Oh, Nick, come on, now you’re getting boring. Don’t add lying to it. I’d say you’re about 44 years away from 72 and living comfortably in some warm,sunny clime basking in ocean breezes far,far away from Iraq where you can sit back and watch the killing and dying without raising a sweat in fear or anger or risking a hair. In short, you’re an armchair warmonger who risks nothing but a few trite words and ideas to bolster your manhood.
Cute, Elaine.
Try to distract from your inability to form effective counterarguments by starting a game of who’s got the biggest academic dick. How irrelevant is that? It’s the way hysterical women argue.
Next thing you know you’ll be trying to bring my appearance into it.
I am pretty good-looking by the way…
And you are still an appeaser. Your opposition to war is still based more on your partisan hatred of President Bush and all things Republican than it is on truth or concern for anybody. Why can’t you understand that this is about facts, about truth?
Well, you good-looking, anonymous, ill-informed, sexist NB, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Stephen Eagle Funk is a real hero. I too would like to know where I can write a letter of support to him. If you find out please let me know and if I manage to find out I will post the information.
This young man and his actions sum up the true meaning of the word ‘bravery’. I’m sure he’ll get a massive backlash (from all the people who keep on telling us that this is ‘the land of the free’) but at least his conscience will be clear.
God Bless Him and anyone else with his courage
NB has a habit of throwing immature barbs that lessen the effectiveness of his arguements. Having said that, he has, in my view, a better grasp of the reality of this matter than his opponents. Pacifism is a no starter, except in the rare circumstaces where it has the advantage of linking to the hidden needs of the more powerful. Don’t confuse idealism with wishful thinking: violence is, always has been, and always will be a part of the human world. Leave “god” out of it. If the U.N. and its fellow travelers couldn’t accomplish the end of the psychopathic outlaw bully’s rule of terror in 12 years, how could another month(s) have helped. Bush did what needed to be done, and so have the wonderful, brave American warriors of our armed forces. Mr. Funk sounds like a confused young man: what was he doing in the Marines in the first place, if he can now utter the programmed left wing pacifist drivel printed above. Over my sixty years, (yeah! I also have a low genius I.Q. and a graduate degree – so what?), I have met numerous soldier/warriors, and they have been some of the finest, most balanced, manly,(I hope that word isn’t offensive to you), and generally decent people I’ve had the privilege of knowing. War is the last tool to be taken out of the box, but it may also be the most valuable one. P.S.: well done site.
You can send comments to Stephen Funk @ stephenfunk@objector.org, people are trying to raise money for his legal defense, its called Stephen Funk Legal Defense Fund and I think you can get the info at CCCO (Central Committee for Conscientious Objection). An update on his case is that he is expecting to be court marshalled but only believes they can do so if they completely ignore evidence of his innocense, but this is the military and I wouldn’t put it past them to screw someone for no good reason. Until Stephen does go he will be speaking at anti war rallies and discussions. And he should be in many upcoming publications.
http://www.survival-international.org
Does anybody knows what happened to http://www.exclusiveagents.com ????