By Gregory Moore. Posted July 13, 2009

A series of portraits of US Soldiers who have publicly refused to fight in Iraq on moral grounds. These portraits do not account for all the soldiers who have refused to fight. Many more have made this courageous decision. On March 22, 2009 - the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War - these paintings were auctioned off as part of a fundraising event called Portraits of Courage. Money from the proceeds was donated to Iraq Veterans Against the War.

GI outreach PDF leaflet

GI outreach leaflet by Courage to Resist. June 17, 2009

"GI resistance against war is anything that gives service members and veterans a voice and makes it harder for the military to function like a well-oiled machine. It ranges from reading anti-war literature to refusing an order to refusing deployment to a war zone. GI resistance is not dishonorable, and it will not put the lives of your buddies in jeopardy. Rather, it is a concrete way to end war and bring the troops home. GI resistance played a central role in ending the war in Vietnam. Having a fighting force that was difficult to control was a key factor in forcing the U.S. government to pull out..."

The back side of leaflet lists contact information for various organizations that support GI resistance.

View, save, and print outreach leaflet

Army GI resisters Travis Bishop, Victor Agosto, and Dustin Stevens

Help provide civilian legal defense funds for military GI resisters with a house party, music show, poetry night, film showing, or by simply passing the hat at your next community/social/union meeting.

By Courage to Resist. May 29, 2009

Service members are courageously taking a stand against our nation’s endless occupation wars. Will you or your community organization step up to support them? These three Army soldiers are likely to face court martials—and a year or more in the stockade—possibly as early as July.

By Maggie Gilmour, Toronto Life. June 12, 2009

Phil McDowell, 29; Patrick Hart, 35; Chuck Wiley, 37; Dean Walcott, 27; Kimberly Rivera, 27

To avoid serving in Iraq, 300 American soldiers have left their homes and families and fled to Canada, 75 of them to Toronto. Many assumed they’d get a visa, settle down and live a normal life. But the federal government has rejected their refugee claims and ordered them deported. Some go into hiding; others wait for appeals and judicial reviews of their cases. In the meantime, they’ve put down roots, taking temp jobs and raising children, nostalgic for a time when Canada was a haven for conscientious objectors.

     Read more... (link to Toronto Life)

By Carl Davison. June 8, 2009

"As I expected, not long after presenting this to my whole chain of command and refusing to go on not just one but several flights going to Iraq, I was fined, demoted, incarcerated and then discharged."

The logic of direct GI resistance is simple; To withhold your labor from something you think is morally wrong, simply saying, I have chosen not participate in something that is at odds with my values and I will tell the military this face to face with pride and dignity so others can learn from my example.

By Steve Yoczk. June 5, 2009

I am a former military servicemember who went AWOL rather than deploy to Iraq. This is the story of why I refused to fight.

I joined the Coast Guard Reserve at age 17 in May 2002 and served uneventfully until June 2005. I decided to switch to the Regular Army for the handful of obvious and universal reasons: money, lack of education, desire for good working skill. More than that, though, I wanted to be a part of something I felt was just and right, with the spirit of the Second World War and the beginning months of the Vietnam conflict in my head. I believed the Army to be an institution that stressed “think before you shoot”. I was told I would be training for communications with the 25 Foxtrot program, or Network Switching Systems Operator/Maintainer.

Also: Audio interview by Courage to Resist. 23:19 min. June 5, 2009

Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist Project Coordinator

By Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist for Truthout. May 21, 2009

"I felt like I was being robbed of everything," Matthew Dobbs said over the phone from his home in Houston, Texas.

"I had visions of military police banging down my door and dragging me back to war." Dobbs, a 26-year-old former soldier who served a tour in Afghanistan from 2003-2004, was recounting a story that has become familiar in the ongoing Global War on Terror. It is the story of a soldier who, after serving a tour overseas and being discharged from active duty, received involuntary orders to redeploy to Iraq or Afghanistan years later.

By Sari Gelzer, Truthout. May 14, 2009

In a victory for Lt. Ehren Watada, the Justice Department decided last week that it would drop attempts to retry the officer for his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Watada's lawyer, James Lobsenz, believes the decision was a case of legal realism. "They were going to have a really difficult time explaining why double jeopardy wasn't violated," said Lobsenz in reference to Watada's first court-martial, which ended in mistrial and would have violated his Fifth Amendment right to not be charged for the same crime twice.

Also: The trials of Ehren Watada
By Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, The Nation. May 19, 2009

By Courage to Resist. 20:12 min. May 14, 2009

After five months in the Army, Dustin Che Stevens sat down during Airborne graduation in order to refuse graduation. He was told to go home and wait for his discharge. Seven years later, he was arrested for desertion. "I started reading [literature on conscientious objection] and started thinking for myself. I knew that in my heart and in my mind that I could not kill anyone... I went back and told them that." Today Dustin awaits a court martial, unless he "volunteers" to deploy to Afghanistan.

Help support Dustin! Donate to his defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org/dustin

By Benjamin Lewis, Courage to Resist for AlterNet. May 14, 2009

In October 2008 I announced at a Winter Soldier hearing in Portland, Oregon that I was being considered for involuntary activation back into the Marine Corps for a third tour of duty as an infantry mortar man; the day after this announcement I reported to Mobilization Command in Missouri as ordered. I reported with the intention of exercising civil disobedience in order to make a political point by refusing activation. The Marine Corps selected me for activation and since that time I have been publicly refusing service. My scheduled report date was May 18, 2009.

By Courage to Resist. 17:00 min. May 10, 2009

Middle East scholar Dr. Stephen Zunes talks about how U.S. imperial hubris helped create, and continues to deepen and intensify the deadly chaos in Afghanistan. "The war not only was raised some moral and legal questions, but it has not resolved the situation… it has made matters worse. The problem is that there has been a gross oversight on the military side of the equation. The really important issues… have been overlooked."