A Letter from Benji Lewis

(and an appeal for moral & monetary support)

 

On the 18th day of May the Marine Corps is expecting me, Benji Lewis, 23, to report to Camp Pendleton for involuntary activation back into the military. This is a call that I am refusing to obey.

     At the age of seventeen I enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the usual delusions of grandeur, service, and heroism. On March 10, 2003, I reported for boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego. Less than a year later I was on my first tour in Iraq as a weapons company mortar man in the infantry.

In April 2004 I took part in the first siege of Fallujah, James Conaway’s failed campaign dubbed Operation Vigilant Resolve. For the remainder of that tour I lived in the police station of Haditha and there befriended many of the local police. After weeks of very little sleep and constant guard duty, my battalion returned home only to learn that our mission at the station was for nothing. Apparently the Marine Corps had lost interest in Haditha as it planned for a second illegal siege of Fallujah. After we marines left, insurgents raided the Haditha police station and assassinated the men I had worked with.

After returning to the states in August my battalion again deployed in January about four months later, once again to Fallujah to sit around in the disaster that the Marine Corps had created there. Unlike during my first tour, there were few notable instances my second time around. For me it was seven months of reflection about the war, my government, and the price of service.

Upon completion of my second tour I became an urban combat instructor for Mojave Viper. I volunteered for this duty because I was disgusted by the stories I had heard and events I had seen--arbitrary shootings and irresponsible actions by other service members. I felt by teaching I could help to mitigate some of the effects of war, and I think I did. In addition, I no longer wanted to be a part of my unit, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines, and I wanted to try to avoid the inevitable deployment. Luckily I missed the deployment cutoff by a matter of days. After a year of combat instruction I recycled to my unit where I was discharged honorably shortly after in March 2007.

I stayed in the Marine Corps because I did not have the courage to leave. It was easier to ride it out than to take a stand, and for that I am ashamed. Though I knew what we were doing in Iraq was wrong, I did not want to face the persecution of my peers or to live with the threat of an arrest warrant. I am not proud of my service and I do not want to compound that shame.

In the fall of 2008 I received notification that I was being considered for activation. Upon my discharge I had vowed never to return to military bondage, and I do not intend to. I reported to the screening muster in October 2008 to show the Marine Corps that I am happy, healthy, fit to serve and now have the courage I didn’t have when I was younger. Since then I have been working diligently on behalf of GI resistance and peace.

Like many other resisters I could have simply ignored my Individual Ready Reserve recall orders to no consequence save an administrative discharge, but instead I am choosing to make a political point in an effort to educate the United States citizenship on the unjust and dehumanizing practices of their military.

The Marine Corps has issued me orders to report in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since the corps has announced that Afghanistan is now its primary mission, it is hard to know where I would be stationed if I were to show up.

But my deployment destination doesn’t matter. I will not participate in any despicable war waged on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan or any other nation that has a dollar value assigned to it.

I am not a former Marine, I am an ex-Marine. My time as an instructor taught me that I must operate outside of the system if I hope to truly help. Never again will I be duped into fighting battles for empire and capitalists. Because I question the very legitimacy of our military, I no longer recognize the military’s sovereignty over my person.

My hope is that in our representative democracy, my public stance will help protect me from military prosecution. However, because I did knowingly show up to the muster and am attempting to change the behavior of the military, the Marine Corps is likely to Court Martial me.

Though I am not hiding from any consequences of my decision, neither will I make it easy for the Marine Corps. That is why I am sending out this plea for your support-—both moral and monetary. Any funds that I receive will be allocated for my legal defense fund between the day I refuse to comply and the date I may be forced to report for court martial. Should I not need any legal defense, which is my hope, the funds will be sent to Courage To Resist to continue the valiant cause of supporting GI resistance.

Thanks for your powerful, peaceful support.

 

Benji.