No. 0022 An Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan Delgado

Cuộc phỏng vấn một quân nhân từ nhiệm Aiden Delgado

Sau đây là cuộc phỏng vấn của tờ báo LiP Magazine với binh nhi` Aidan Delgado, người lính đã từ nhiệm chiến đấu trên chiến trường Iraq. Aiden đã được gởi đi tham chiến tại Iraq trong vo`ng một năm. Nơi đây trong 6 tháng anh co' nhiệm vụ canh gác nhà tù Abu Ghraib. Delgado cho biết anh sẽ có một buổi nói chuyện về kinh nghiệm đào ngủ của anh vào ngày Chủ Nhật ngày 30 tháng 1, năm 2005 (ngày mà nước Iraqi có cuộc bầu cử), buổi nói chuyện ở San Francisco tại Beta Lounge.
Delgado, 23 tuổi trước kia là một sinh viên đại học tại Florida, theo lời Delgado thi` anh là một sinh viên không được thành công trên con đường học vấn, vi` thế Delgado quyết định ghi tên vào quân đội. Ngày anh ghi tên nhập ngũ cũng là ngày hai toà nhà World Trade Center bị quân khủng bố quá khích đạo Hồi phá sập bằng cách cướp máy bay và bay vào hai toà nhà này, khi anh thấy hi`nh ảnh đó thi` anh biết rằng anh sẽ ở trong quân đội đối diện với sự khó khăn và lâu hơn dự tính.
Vài tháng sau, anh theo đạo Phật và tin tưởng vào thuyết Từ Bi, không sát sanh cuả Phật Giáo. Vào tháng Tư năm 2003 anh phải thuyên chuyển qua chiến trường Iraq, đối diện với khủng bố bằng sự bắt cóc và chặt đầu con tin, sự chết chóc hàng ngày, hàng giờ. Anh luôn luôn tự hỏi là anh có thể thi hành nhiệm vụ với tình trạng tinh thần căng thẳng đo' không, và nhất là anh có thể phạm vào sát giới hay không?
Ðến giữa năm 2003 anh tuyên bố từ chối không muốn ở lại trong quân đội nữa. (từ tháng 4 đến giữa năm tức là anh chỉ thi hành nhiệm vụ có vài tháng) Anh lấy ly'do anh là người Phật tử, anh ăn chay trường, và anh nhấn mạnh rằng anh thật sự là người Phật tử, quân đội không co`n thích hợp với anh nữa.
Trên đây là nội dung bài phỏng vấn Delgado, trong suốt cuộc phỏng vấn anh chỉ nêu ly' do vi` anh là Phật tử, ăn chay trường, nên anh không thể gia nhập quân đội nữa.

An Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan Delgado
By SCOTT FLEMING

The following interview with Spc. Aidan Delgado, a conscientious objector who spent six months of a one-year tour of Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison, appears in the Spring 2005 issue of LiP Magazine. Delgado will be presenting a slideshow and talk about his experiences on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 (Iraqi election day), in San Francisco at the Beta Lounge, 1072 Illinois at 22nd Street, at 7:30. For more information contact boal@sonic.net.
A idan Delgado, 23, was a Florida college student looking for a change when he decided to join the army reserve. It was his misfortune to sign an enlistment contract on the morning of September 11, 2001. After finishing the paperwork, he saw a television broadcast of the burning World Trade Center and realized he might be in for more than one weekend a month of low-key service. In the ensuing months, Delgado became dedicated to Buddhism and its principles of pacifism. By April 2003, when he began his yearlong tour in Iraq, he was openly questioning whether he could participate in the war there in good conscience. Having grown up in Cairo, Delgado spoke Arabic and had not been steeped in the racism that drove many of his fellow soldiers. When he surrendered his rifle and declared himself a conscientious objector in the middle of 2003, he was punished by his officers and ostracized by his peers. His unit, the 320th Military Police Company, spent six months in the southern city of Nasiriyah, and another six months helping to run the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Now out of the army, Delgado says the prison abuse that has been covered by the likes of 60 Minutes and the New Yorker was the tip of the iceberg: Brutality, often racially motivated, infected the entire prison and the entire military operation in Iraq.
Why did you decide to join the army?It was not for high-minded reasons. I was in school, but I wasn't doing all that well. I was stagnating. I wanted to get a change of scenery, do something different. I signed up for the reserves, because in the pre-September 11 world, the reserves meant you work just two days a month; you get to be in the army, but you don't have to do anything. I signed my contract the morning of September 11 and then all of a sudden my reserve commitment meant a whole lot more.
How did you feel about your decision to join the army in light of what happened that day?
At the time, the whole country was riding high on this surge of patriotism, so I felt vindicated, that I had made the right decision. Because I joined before September 11, I felt morally superior-I joined before it was popular to do so. Afterwards, when I saw the September 11 feelings being redirected-Afghanistan was one thing, but then they started turning it toward Iraq-my feelings of patriotism waned.
It wasn't long after 9/11, maybe six months, that the Bush administration started publicly building the case for invading Iraq.
Yeah, that's what I thought was very striking. I felt like they had made a very strong case for attacking the Taliban and the whole Afghanistan campaign. But when they started talking about Iraq, I said, "Wait, there isn't any proven connection, and there are several facts that seem to indicate they were not connected."
How did Buddhism influence your feelings about the army and the war in Iraq?
My Buddhism developed parallel to being in the army. I wasn't a Buddhist before I joined the military, but after I signed on I had a couple of months before I went to basic training. That's when I started studying Buddhism intensely, doing research to cope with the stress of being in the army.
I went into advanced training the next summer, and that's when I became really serious about Buddhism. I became a vegetarian. I started talking to my sergeants, saying, "I'm not sure the army's right for me; I'm a Buddhist now."
Within a few months of arriving in Iraq, I told them that I wanted to be a conscientious objector and I wanted to leave the military because of my religious beliefs. It ended up taking over a year to get my status, so I served in the whole conflict as a conscientious objector. I finally got conscientious objector status after my unit returned to the US.
How hard was it to get conscientious objector status?
Extremely difficult-there's a huge burden of proof. You have to do an interview with an investigating officer who grills you on your beliefs to find out if you're just making it up or if you've really thought it out. You have to have some kind of documentation. I think one of my strongest points was that I had a lot of military paperwork showing that I had gradually identified myself as a Buddhist. I also had a lot of conversations with my superiors where I talked about being an objector and being a Buddhist, and they went on the record and said, "Yes, he's talked about it progressively throughout the deployment." That really did a lot to establish my sincerity.
The command was extremely hostile to me, and there were all kinds of punitive measures. They wouldn't let me go on leave. They took my ballistic armor away-they told me that I didn't need the hard plate that goes inside your flak jacket, the part that actually protects you against bullets. They said that because I was an objector and I wasn't going to fight, I wouldn't need it. This proved not to be the case; when we got to Abu Ghraib, there was continuous mortar shelling. I did the whole year's deployment without that plate. I really feel that was more maliciously motivated than anything else.
Also, I was socially ostracized. A lot of my fellow soldiers didn't want to eat with me or hang out with me or go on missions with me. They felt I was untrustworthy because I was critical of the war and I was a Buddhist. My command "lost" my conscientious objector paperwork or misdirected it. They'd say, "We lost your copy, you'll have to do it again."
I eventually got my home leave back because I threatened my commander that I was going to have them prosecuted for discriminating against me on religious grounds. My company commander, my company first sergeant, and my battalion commander had all decided they were not going to let me leave-they said I couldn't go home on a two-week leave because I wouldn't come back. I was going to get the ACLU and the World Congress of Buddhists involved. Ultimately, they decided it wasn't worth the headache.