As Donald Trump increasingly uses the U.S. military to carry out his agenda through brute force,
organizations that provide counseling services for U.S. servicemembers are reporting growing numbers of calls.
These calls have further spiked in response to Trump’s war on Iran, one of the most unpopular in U.S. history.

The United States has carried out the war through intense attacks on densely populated civilian areas,
the impact of which was clearly shown in the bombing of a girls’ school, killing well over 100 children.
Not even concerned with selling the war to the public, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has leaned into treating the intervention as a “holy war” for Christianity.
Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran and executive director at the 
"Center on Conscience & War" (CCW), told Truthout that troops are telling his organization that they don’t want to be involved in the killing.

“That’s pretty much all of the cases that we have,” Prysner said.
“It’s all people who don’t want to take part in killing in a war that they don’t believe in,
and this war has made them realize that they can’t take part in any kind of U.S. military action ever again.”
The CCW, formerly the
"National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors",
was founded in 1940 to assist religious communities whose beliefs prohibited them from participating in war.
Over time, and as a result of broadening criteria for who can qualify as a conscientious objector (CO),
the organization evolved to assist troops of all backgrounds whose values prevent them from being able to participate in war.
⭐️Prysner told Truthout that in recent weeks CCW has already been able to help several servicemembers become COs to avoid being deployed.
To reach more servicemembers experiencing crises of conscience, CCW and other organizations including the Quaker House
founded the "GI Rights Hotline" in 1994.
Steve Woolford, a resource counselor at the Quaker House, has taken calls for the hotline since 2001 and agreed that the war on Iran, and Trump’s broader use of the military, has caused a spike in calls.
“This war has made them realize that they can’t take part in any kind of U.S. military action ever again.”

“The biggest increase has come from people who are feeling a lot of opposition to the ways the military’s currently being used,” Woolford said.
“That includes people who feel like they don’t want to be sent into cities and point a weapon at U.S. citizens,
they don’t want to be part of what to many of them look like war crimes, shooting down speedboats in Venezuela that wouldn’t be able to make it to the United States,
and I would say with the invasion, or whatever you want to call it, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ in Iran, there’s been significant opposition to that.”

Woolford clarified that not all troops who call the hotline are able to leave the military by filing as COs.
While every member of the military has that right, the process requires applicants to prove that they have deeply held antiwar beliefs.
This means that even if someone is opposed to certain orders or operations, they don’t qualify as CO if they aren’t opposed to participation in all wars.
Prysner said that the social pressure in the military can also make it difficult for troops to declare themselves COs
#conscientiousobjector

https://therealnews.com/trump-military-crisis-of-conscience-troops

NPR: There's growing disquiet in the #military. The Iran war made it worse

By Kat Lonsdorf, Tom Bowman
April 10, 20265:00 AM ET

"Bill Galvin has spent much of the past month answering the phone.

" 'It's been very, very busy,' he says. Galvin is the counseling director at the Center on Conscience and War, which helps run the 24-hour #GIRights Hotline, set up to inform service members of their options for military discharge.

"Most callers are asking how to apply to become a #ConscientiousObjector — a difficult, invasive and rarely used process. But they're also airing their concerns and frustrations, often anonymously, as the hotline allows them a space to do so without repercussions.

"Military members are citing myriad reasons for wanting to leave, but the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has been a powerful motivator. In March alone, Galvin's center took on more than 80 new clients — almost twice as many as it takes on in an average year. The busiest single day saw 12 new clients join, with one person saying four other members of their platoon were also interested."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/10/nx-s1-5771612/military-iran-war-trump-conscientious-objector

#NoWar #WarOnIran #USPol

US Troops Are Refusing to Fight in Iran War

As the Trump administration moves thousands of U.S. service members to the Middle East amid the disastrous US-Israeli war on Iran, remarkable dissent is brewing inside the U.S. military.

Mike Prysner of the Center on Conscience and War joins Prem to discuss the opposition inside the military – as some troops currently on their way to the Middle East seek to refuse fighting.

According to Prysner, command is telling soldiers to prepare for the worst. “They’re saying a ground war is inevitable, like this is happening, you better get ready.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GckKhP6bmA

#News #Zeteo #USA #Iran #ConscientiousObjector #CO

Contact the Center on Conscience & War if you’re in the US military and want to seek discharge or reassignment as a Conscientious Objector.

Current military policy (DoD Instruction 1300.06, dated July 12, 2017) has defined conscientious objection as, “a firm, fixed, and sincere objection to participation in war in any form or the bearing of arms, by reason of religious training and/or belief.”  This definition has been further clarified by both military policy and our legal system.

If you believe you might fall within the definition provided, give us a call today at 202-483-2220

https://centeronconscience.org/who-is-military-co/

#ConscientiousObjector

For people thinking of Conscientious Objection: Fact Sheet ❮ Resources ❮ GI Rights Hotline: Military Discharges and Military Counseling

https://girightshotline.org/en/military-knowledge-base/conscientious-objection-discharge/

#iranwar #usmiltary #ConscientiousObjector

https://youtu.be/vVu7f95hGy4

Is it true that only religious people who are part of traditional peace churches, are eligible to exempted from a #USMilitary draft on the grounds of #ConscientiousObjection ?

Also what about non-Christians, including Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, etc.?

The good news is that current US law recognizes that religious faith (or even affiliation with a traditional peace church) is not required to be recognized as a CO.

Watch this video to learn more, and also to learn about an upcoming training opportunity for #DraftCounselors.

#MilitaryDraft #Conscription #ConscientiousObjection #Conscience #Peace #ConscientiousObjector #Mazeldon