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Camilo Mejia: An American We Can All Be Proud Of

The Objector 
Two years after invading Iraq the US is witnessing declining support for the war at home, including outright opposition from a most unlikely source - its own military ranks. Here's Sophie McNeil. 

Posted 06/16/05 

REPORTER: Sophie McNeil In the poor inner-city areas of Detroit, Michigan, the anti-war movement is alive and well. 

MAN: This is a picture that's on the front page of the Detroit news. 

REPORTER: And what's it a picture of? 

MAN: It's a picture of all the dead soldiers just from Michigan. 

29-year-old Camilo Mejia is the guest of honour at today's march. Just three weeks out of jail, this is his first anti-war rally. Camilo's nine months inside was for desertion from the US Army. He was the first American soldier to refuse further service and publicly declare himself a conscientious objector to the Iraq war. 

WOMAN PROTESTER: So yes. I'm out here in the defence of all the soldiers, including Camilo Mejia, I respect him. 

After spending nine years in the military and reaching the rank of staff sergeant, Camilo's life has now taken a dramatic turn. 

CAMILO MEJIA, OBJECTOR: You know, I had a really comfortable life and I didn't want to really leave my comfort zone until I went to war and realised what was really going on. Now I feel it's an obligation to be here. 

During five months as an infantryman in the Sunni triangle hot spot of al Ramadi, Camilo began to feel deeply troubled by what his unit was ordered to do. 

CAMILO MEJIA: Every time I asked myself why were we there? Why were we raiding their homes? Why were we killing their people? Why were we getting in fire fights? Why were we doing roadblocks? You know, all the reasons they gave us as far as weapons of mass destruction and al-Qa'ida and uranium purchase and blah blah blah - it turned out to be a bunch of lies. So as a soldier, as a member of a unit that is occupying a nation, you need to justify that to yourself. You need to look at yourself every day in the mirror and come up with answers. 

Unable to find acceptable answers to those questions, Camilo decided to go AWOL, while on a 2-week leave in October 2003. He went underground, before filing a conscientious objector application and surrendering himself back to military custody. But the army court-martialled him for desertion and refused to hear any evidence of why Camilo felt his conscience could not allow him to serve in the US occupation of Iraq. 

REPORTER: Major, how did you feel when Private Mejia was found guilty of desertion? 

MAJOR TAD WARFEL: I felt good. 

Major Tad Warfel was Camilo's commanding officer in Iraq. 

MAJOR TAD WARFEL: Basically, he deserted his men. He deserted me, personally - and I took that very personally - and he deserted... worse - was his men. He let his men down, he let his country down and he personally let me down. 

REPORTER: You were found guilty and sentenced for desertion. You have to admit that you did abandon your fellow soldiers in a time of war, didn't you? 

CAMILO MEJIA: I don't consider it abandonment because when you find yourself in a very, very bad situation, everyone has a choice. Whether that choice means jail, whether that choice means court martial, humiliation from your peers or whatever, you have the choice to continue to be part of something bad or to remove yourself from that bad situation. It was very hard, it was very difficult to make a stand alone, and for me, to remove myself from a war knowing that people I loved has to stay there - but I had to make my decision based on my moral principles. 

But by choosing to stand by those principles, Camilo took a great personal risk. 

MAJOR TAD WARFEL: It's common knowledge in UCMJ that if you desert during a time of war, that we win, that's punishable by death. That's plain - that's in black and white, in writing. That's the most severe punishment you can get obviously. I would not wish that on him for doing what he did. But I can't think of a much worse crime than what he did. 

CAMILO MEJIA: A more realistic possibility was that they would go for a general court martial and try and put me away for 25 years, 30 years. And that was really the biggest fear, because I have a 4.5-year-old daughter. At the time, she was 3.5 - this was about a year ago when I surrendered. And the biggest fear was precisely that. 

LADY: You deserve an award you don't deserve to be treated like you have been. So I want you to know as an activist that I thank you and I really honour you. OK? 

CAMILO MEJIA: Thank you. 

REPORTER: How does it make you feel when people say things like that? 

CAMILO MEJIA: I feel terrible. I don't think I'm worthy. That's the problem. I'm not really nervous to address this audience, it's just - you know, I just don't think I deserve the honour. 

PREACHER: There comes a time when silence is betrayal. This is such a time. 

CAMILO MEJIA: I am a veteran, a patriot. Sadly, the word 'patriotism' has been twisted into something else but we're taking back that meaning. And yes, I am a patriot because I love this country. 

You know, with the culture and everything, the worst thing that you can do to a Muslim man is go into his home at 3:00 in the morning and put him on the ground with a muzzle to his head in front of his family. It's a really scary thing to stand up to a captain or a colonel and say, "No, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to humiliate this man." And out of fear you do things like that. 

MAJOR TAD WARFEL: In his position in the army, he has no right or no business judging if the war is just or unjust. I mean, it's not up to him. I mean, that's up to people way above my level, way above his level. 

But Camilo felt he couldn't just follow the orders from above. In one incident, his unit was given a group of prisoners to guard and ordered to deprive them of sleep for up to 72 hours. 

CAMILO MEJIA: And they way they did that was by yelling at them and ordering them to get up, and sit down, letting them sleep for five seconds so that they would be disorientated and then banging sledgehammers against walls to create an explosion-like sound, and, if that didn't work, to proceed to grab a pistol and cock it next to their ear so as to make them believe that they were about to be executed, and that would pretty much do the trick, you know, as far as keeping them awake. So these were pretty objectionable things, you know. When you go there and you're an infantry man, that's the first thing - you're not really trained for those things, you're not really knowledge as far as is this legal, is this illegal, is this proper procedure? It just feels wrong. 

Camilo's role in the anti-war movement next takes him to Fayetteville, North Carolina. This is an army town, home to America's largest military base. And today, Camilo is meeting other soldiers who have formed the group Iraq Veterans Against the War while he was in jail. 

REPORTER: Is he a legend amongst the Iraqi veterans? 

JEFF: You know, I think he's a legend to those of us who oppose this war. I think if I had to pick out a hero in this crowd from the recent Iraq war, I would definitely - he would be the first person I'd give a medal to. 

CAMILO MEJIA: I'm just really happy to be here because there are so many people here from the military and that's a crowd that we really need to get into this fight. 

But in today's polarised America, many people, like these counter-protesters, vehemently disagree with today's march. 

MAN: You would rather we lose the war. the more American soldiers die, the more you can push your agenda. Last time I checked, we were kicking ass! 

MAN 2: They're a bunch of misguided people and they are... very harmful to the United States and to the morale of our troops. 

REPORTER: What do you think of Camilo? 

COUNTER PROTESTER: Well, he voluntarily signed a contract. We don't have a draft here in America anymore we have a totally volunteer armed forces. And he volunteered and he signed a contract and he didn't keep his word - that's all there is to it. 

Everybody has to pass through security and be searched before being able to enter the park. 

CAMILO MEJIA: I thought that security was pretty excessive, I don't think it's necessary. You know, you got a lot of pacifists here, a lot of conscientious objectors and I think they're doing it to discourage this. I think they're doing it because they don't want us here. 

9-year-old Tory is from a military family here in Fayetteville. She wrote letters to Camilo while he was in jail and this is the first time they've met. 

REPORTER: Why did you want to write letters to him? 

TORY: Because I felt it was important. I didn't want him to feel alone all in jail. That's why. Because peace is important to me - I want to keep America peaceful. And nobody should ever attack us, because, I mean, we should always be peaceful. 

CAMILO MEJIA: Two years ago, I was in the Middle East participating in war. Two months ago, I was in jail for not being apart of that war. Today I join people like my friend Tory and I join people like you to say no to war. And I am against this and every war. Thank you all and thank you, God. 

The Pentagon is clearly worried. Over 5,000 American soldiers have gone AWOL since the start of the Iraq war. But the majority of them haven't made their cases public. So it's no wonder Camilo was singled out and harshly punished for the media attention he brought to the issue. 

MAJOR TAD WARFEL: I mean he tried to make it a national media event. He tried to make it a big deal. I mean he wanted to take on the army and when you do that that's the wrong thing to do because the army's a big, bad powerful thing. And he wanted to take me on and I didn't like that either, so we struck back the best way we could. Probably if he would've been quiet about it, not - you know, came out at a public news conference or a news press and did all that stuff, he probably wouldn't be in the shape he is in now. 

REPORTER: But if they hadn't punished you, then it would have set a really dangerous precedent and heaps of other soldiers could have done what you did. So didn't they have to punish you? 

CAMILO MEJIA: Didn't that end the Vietnam war? Wouldn't it be great if more soldiers did that? 

At the end of his tour, Camilo can finally spend some time with his 4-year-old daughter, Samantha. 

CAMILO MEJIA, (Translation): Samantha, did you miss daddy when he was travelling? 

SAMANTHA: Si. 

CAMILO, (Translation): A lot or just a little bit? 

SAMANTHA: A lot! 

CAMILO: And the hardest moment in prison was when my daughter went to visit me and she left that day and I couldn't go where she was going and for the first time I felt like they had taken something away from me. 

After nine years in the military, Camilo now has to build a new life. He has lost most of his friends in the army and he's been recommended for a bad-conduct discharge. But at least his conscience is clear. 

CAMILO MEJIA: So it was very much a political case, and I made it a political case by going to the media but I don't regret it. I have no regrets about being in prison, I have no regrets about making a public stand - I don't regret any of it.

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