Veteran Groups Urging Soldiers to Refuse Combat

(Newsroom America) -- A number of veterans advocacy groups that want to bring the 12-year-old Afghan war to an end are passing out information near Joint Base Lewis-McChord informing soldiers how to become conscientious objectors.

Veterans for Peace and March Forward pegged their Our Lives, Our Rights campaign to an upcoming deployment of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which is stationed at the base. The brigade expects to leave soon with up to 4,000 soldiers for a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan's Kandahar province.

Some of the information the groups are passing out are aimed at soldiers who may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, which in turn could help them obtain a non-combat assignment.

The The 4th Brigade is embarking on its third deployment since 2003; the first two were to Iraq, but the upcoming deployment will be to Afghanistan.

Under current Pentagon plans, all U.S. combat forces are scheduled to hand over security responsibility to Afghan police and army units by the end of 2014.

"We know our message that we don't have to go to Afghanistan is resonating with soldiers," Gerry Condon, a member of Veterans for Peace, told the News Tribune.

So far, two soldiers have responded by seeking more information about becoming conscientious objectors, said Mike Prysner, an Iraq veteran from Los Angeles who is participating in this week's outreach, the paper said.

"The war cannot be won," Prysner said. "But we are still going, because (politicians and military leaders) cannot accept a military failure on their watch."

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