Democracy Now! Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" has been featured in many Metafilter posts over the years but I didn't find any direct links to the main site recently. Daily video webcasts are available and the program is also heard on many Pacifica stations. Today's reports :

• Lawless World: Bush Considered Flying US Spy Planes Painted With UN Colors Over Iraq In 2003 to Provoke War. Interview with the author of "Lawless World", Philippe Sands, detailing Bush-Blair meeting committing to Iraq war in January 2003.
• Former UK Soldier Urges Others to Refuse To Fight in Iraq.USA Today is reporting at least 8,000 men and women have now deserted the U.S. military since the United States invaded Iraq three years ago.

posted by notmtwain on Mar 7, 2006 - 40 comments

Advice for Conscientious Objectors in the Armed Forces (html version). "A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to applying for conscientious objector status. This edition....builds upon a tradition which began in 1970 with the First Edition. Advice has since reached over 40,000 military men and women who had decided that they could no longer in good conscience remain in the military. The 1970 Advice spoke to a generation troubled by the war in Vietnam. This generation of conscientious objectors, too, has seen war--most recently in the Persian Gulf, and before that in Panama. It has experienced the end of the Cold War and the flowering of hopes for peace; and it has watched as those hopes turned to disappointment in the chaotic, dangerous post-Cold War world." The G.I. Rights Hotline has recently reported they "fielded a record number of calls, mostly from military personnel and families seeking advice on conscientious-objector and other discharges."
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Mar 14, 2003 - 7 comments

Amazing! If I live to be 1000, I will never be able to properly underestimate the stupidity of human beings. Many of the enlisted personnel who are now seeking honorable discharges argue they didn't sign up to defend America; they just wanted to learn a trade or earn money for college. I'd let them go if they pay back the money spent of training and salary.
posted by thirteen on Oct 18, 2001 - 75 comments

Selective Service: "Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO (conscientous objector) status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims." Why is this opt-out and not opt-in? Isn't restricting it to men sexist? (I support women's right to serve in combat). Isn't the whole idea of America that you choose whether you want to fight for your country and not who ever happens to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania? You can check on your own registration here.
posted by owillis on Sep 8, 2001 - 30 comments