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Ranchers.net

Please note that while this guy is from South Dakota, he lives on the liberal east side of the state and we don't claim him west river.

Soldier seeks discharge as conscientious objector

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - A federal judge will hear from Army officials next week before deciding whether a Brookings, S.D., native must deploy to Afghanistan while his application for a conscientious-objector discharge is pending.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd last week issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Army from deploying Fort Drum Sgt. Corey D. Martin to Afghanistan or any other war zone.

Army officials will appear Tuesday before Hurd in Utica to show why an order preventing deployment should not be granted.

Neither Martin, 24, nor his lawyer, Deborah Karpatkin, have commented. Martin, an intelligence analyst with the 10th Mountain Division, has twice had his deployment orders rescinded, including an order to deploy Tuesday to Afghanistan.

Court documents show that Martin filed his application Dec. 12. An investigating officer recommended his application be approved, court documents said.

Martin joined the Army for a five-year enlistment in June 2001. He said he made the decision to join the Army at age 19, six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In court documents, Martin said he joined when he "had no strong opinion on the justice or necessity of war," having only "vague notions" regarding Vietnam and no specific insight into the first Gulf War.

Martin said in court papers that after the attacks, he initially believed the country needed to "strike back." However, although he said he "wasn't sure about" invading Afghanistan, "invading Iraq seemed obviously wrong to me," according to the documents.

During a Christmas visit with his family in 2002, Martin said he discussed his feelings with his family and began reading anti-war literature.

Martin, who practices Buddhism, said he later realized doing his intelligence job effectively "would cause the death of a person who might otherwise live."

He said that as an intelligence analyst, he would face little risk of personal harm in Afghanistan. Martin said he also recognized that by refusing to go, he faced possible reduction in rank, a loss of pay and benefits, imprisonment, a bad-conduct discharge, a criminal record and poor prospects for future employment.

"I am adamant about refusing to go to war. ... Although I hope I can avoid it, I am prepared to suffer consequences before I violate my conscience," Martin said.
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