U.S. Soldier Refuses To Serve in “Illegal” Iraq War - With Video
That’s nice, Pal, read the UCMJ, get your gear, and DO NOT MISS MOVEMENT…
Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.
“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school,” the now 24-year-old told AFP.
“I was ‘filet mignon’ for recruiters. They started phoning me when I was in 10th grade,” or around 16 years old, he added.
Chiroux joined the US army straight out of high school nearly six years ago, and worked his way up from private to sergeant.
He served in Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines and was due to be deployed next month in Iraq.
On Thursday, he refused to go, saying he considers Iraq an illegal war.
“I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq,” Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda of a congressional building in Washington.
“My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation… I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation,” he said, as a dozen veterans of the five-year-old Iraq war looked on.
Minutes earlier, Chiroux had cried openly as he listened to former comrades-in-arms testify before members of Congress about the failings of the Iraq war.
The testimonies were the first before Congress by Iraq veterans who have turned against the five-year-old war.
Former army sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith told a half-dozen US lawmakers and scores of people who packed into a small hearing room of “lawless murders, looting and the abuse of countless Iraqis.”
He spoke of the psychologically fragile men and women who return from Iraq, to find little help or treatment offered from official circles.
Goldsmith said he had “self-medicated” for several months to treat the wounds of the war.
The US army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for 30 days.
Chiroux stood fast in his resolve to not report for duty on June 15.
(AFP)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
well…can’t they ship him back to Afghanistan then??? I guess that would set a precedent though…last thing we need is conscientious objectors within the military.
can you imagine if people thought that they could opt out of the Normandy invasion on similar grounds?
not sure what to think on this one…he let the left leaning media get to him.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:52 amoh…and blame it on the recruiters…oh woe is me
May 16th, 2008 at 10:53 amKerry’s Kids Inc.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:56 amHe sure knows a lot about Iraq for someone who has not been there.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:56 amHE WILL LOOK GOOD IN PRISON GREY.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:56 amWow, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, and now he’ll ad an army stockade to his credentials.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:57 amNo one can be forced to serve. How can you depend on them in combat. Too bad with no formal declaration of war, we could intro him to Levenworth.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am“I stand before you today to admit I am a fucking un-American coward without the stones to go to iraq (oh yeah, illegal, UN, occupation, blah, blah blah.)”
May 16th, 2008 at 10:58 amThis guy is an ignorant coward. Just because the recruiters were calling him all the time doesn’t mean they were holding a proverbial gun to his head to make him join up. He has free will.
I have an Uncle that dropped out of West Point to refuse the draft during Vietnam. He spent 18 months in jail. Years later he said that he regretted it, having fallen in with the wrong political crowd.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:00 amIdiots with an agenda, and I think this is exactly what this is, must be incredibly painful to you Vets that have served proudly and honorably. I’m always hesitant to criticize anyone that served. Because I don’t know first hand the horrors of real combat, I don’t say much but this clown makes me angry because I highly question his motives.
Personally, as a civilian, I would just as soon not pay to keep him at some Federal Pen. I don’t want him eating on my dime. I say give him a dishonorable discharge, take away any bennies he has accrued, let him carry the discharge on his resume for the remainder of his years, and let his future employers determine if they think he is doing is patriotic.
Maybe I’m way off key but I don’t see how a volunteer military can survive without following command. Perhaps if he had been drafted against his will, I might feel differently but he did volunteer to do a job.
And even if I was drafted, I would still do my utmost to serve under an elected Commander-in-Chief. And if this war is unjust as he says, I wish how somebody could explain to me, no matter how you feel about the war, how giving 28MM people a chance at freedom after living under tyranny for 40 years is anything less than honorable.
I guess I live in a different universe than these war protestors. I know for a fact, as soon as the leftist appeasers are through with this young man, they’ll throw him overboard. It’s their way. He’s a fool to listen to them because they will ruin his life without remorse as soon as they’ve used him.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:00 amSOC
No one can be forced to serve. How can you depend on them in combat. Too bad with no formal declaration of war, we could intro him to Levenworth.
IF HE DESERTS OR REFUSES A “MOVEMENT” HE CAN STILL BE SENT THERE.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:01 ammaybe 20 years of breaking big rocks into little rocks at Leavenworth will “adjust” his attitude. he joined voluntarily, he’s an adult and fully aware of the consequences. it doesn’t matter the rank he attained, or how well he’s served up to that point, he crossed the line.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:17 amAm I understanding this right? He’s got no problem being in the army, and making a buck from it, that’s fighting this war he considers illegal until he’s required to go to Iraq? Sounds to me like a coward’s cop-out, not conscientious objection.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:25 amYep, you got it. The stupid SOB will either be an ex-patriot living in some western european country by summers end or be in a stockade.
Looking it this guys bio at IVAW plus some other places, you’ll find that while he was in Afganistan, he’s a REMF. A public affairs pogue that has 0-zilch-nada combat experience. Has never seen combat, has never seen how well Americans treat or are treated by Iraqis, could never comprehend the respect we get from young Iraqi men and wouldn’t know how to respond to the out-pouring gratitude that our men and women receive everyday from Iraqi mothers and fathers because of what we have and are sacrificing on a daily basis.
What you have here is nothing more than that “sunshine patriot” who thought the Army was a cool way to pay for the college he couldn’t afford as long as he didn’t get shot at and soon as that became a possibility he became a conscientious objector. Like KY Jim
said, “he sure knows a lot about Iraq for not ever being there”. In fact all he knows about Iraq is what he’s heard from the “winners” at IVAW, a group I’m sure he joined as soon as he found out that his guard unit was being activated and he was going to miss his precious two semesters at college! I hat talking like this about other veterans but what an f*in shit bag.
Here’s the deal, you don’t wanna go? FINE. Article 32 his ass, reduction in rank to Private, repay all bonuses given for re-enlisting in the National Guard, revoke all GI Bill and Army College fund benefits then, after he’s served 6 months of restriction while assigned to the CG’s clean-up detail at Fort Polk, put his a** on the street with a dishonorable discharge for behavior unbecoming.
And before any of you wet willy types come along and say that I just don’t understand, I got stop lossed 2 months before going on terminal leave after 8 years of service just to sit my ass in Kuwait during the invasion then got to drive my ass around Anbar in a soft-top hummer missing it’s top, sand bags in the floor instead of armor wearing some crappy 1980’s vest I borrowed from some TACP guys. You know, the same kinda shit evryone who’s been over there has had to deal with. So cry me a f*in river, lace up your boots, get your ass in the shit and shut the F***-UP
May 16th, 2008 at 11:30 amsounds like a troofer to me
May 16th, 2008 at 11:31 amI haven’t seen a hair-do like that since Jeffery Dahmer, and check out the hair on the dude to his right.
See ya in Levinworth asshole!
May 16th, 2008 at 11:38 am“I haven’t seen a hair-do like that since Jeffery Dahmer, and check out the hair on the dude to his right.”
San fran gay punk hair.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:51 am“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school,” the now 24-year-old told AFP.
———————————————————-
Oh … Jesus H.! Just say “NO!”, dude!
I ain’t heard a fucking sob story this sticky sweet since the last winter Olympics and [which ever] Russian skater’s poor-poor-pity-me tail before the ‘big skate’ for the medal …
Spare me.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:59 amHmm, so were can I go to throw piss on these assholes? For all the crap our men and women endure for anti-troop protesters I feel an obligation to return this favor to these children, cowards, retards of the left. Make no doubt he will be a poster retard for MOVEON.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school”
I didnt have shoes till I were 15. We alls pood in da woods and wiped our asses on du leaves. We alls hunted coons fer food cause we couldn afford dem fancy supermarches what you rich folks go tu.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pmcan anyone tell me about the breaks that alqaeda takes. cause the have been at this a hell of lot longer then we have. with all this bitching about having to serve for 18 months here and there im starting to think that the liberals and a lot of our military are a bunch of pussies. everyone is bitching and moaning about this and that. im about to have more respect for alqeada and their men then ours. and i know that a majority of our men and women that are over there arent pussies. but these stories are showing up more often then not.
does alqeada get to take a break. do they have top notch medical care and shrinks for all of the shit they have to deal with. talk about psychological problems. could you imagine having the greatest military force on your ass day in and day out. how come im not hearing about all of the psych wards full of alqeada fighters rocking back and forth in their own feces. atleast our men and woman have a choice and then all they do is bitch. boy do i wish we had the guys from world war II. i think that we have created the greatest generation of pansies.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:22 pmTo all these individuals who testifyed in front of Congress: Don’t pull that Kerry shit on America. When you become a deserter, you are the lowest form of life; I could care less where you served.
If you object to the war and you have finished your term of service and thus fulfilled the contract that you signed with Uncle Sam, that’s one thing. When you turn into a yellow-bellied coward and run, then I have no respect for you.
Leavenworth is too good for you clowns. A firing squad would be better.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pmThe real heroes continue to fight AQ &Co; they finish their contracts and move on with their lives; some give the ultimate sacrifice of life or limb. They are deserving of America’s utmost respect and admiration.
You individuals are complete zeroes in comparison. You’re pond scum.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:36 pmI just ran IVAW at discover the networks and was not at all surprised to find that IVAW is funded by Soros money. Just wonder what these traitors are getting for their lies?
May 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm[[Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.
“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school,” the now 24-year-old told AFP.]]
errr, US military recruiters love young Americans who DIDNT do badly in school more.
Fuck the “journalists” of the AFP.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pmI think he is queer. See how his boyfriend on his left looks admiringly at him? He knows he wouldn’t last long in his unit before he gets a blanket party. He’ll be the life of the party at Leavenworth!
May 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pmI saw this first on Drudge. I noticed right away that it originated at AFP. That told me something right away. Then the first two sentences revealed all I needed to know.
I don’t know for certain, but would be really surprised if Army recruiters make cold calls to 16 year olds. Anyone know for sure?
I wrote to Drudge and asked if he has become a left-wing mouthpiece. He seems to print a lot of this kind of crap recently.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pmIt reminds me. I think I am going to have KFC tonight!
May 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pmThe sad thing is that nothing will happen to this asshole. In fact, he’ll probably get a scholarship to some Ivy league school.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:15 pmi love how people keep rippin on the military for preying on the poor and weak to recruit. he acts like he couldn’t say no because he’s poor and not too bright, yet i come from an upper class family that did well in school and i’m still being sought out to be in the military in my 20s. this guy needs to man up.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm“Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.
“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school,” the now 24-year-old told AFP.”
But he stayed in for six years…
May 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pmI would live to write Matthis Chiroux a letter . . . Let me know if anyone knows where he resides . . .
Poor ignorant slimebucket piece of shit retard fool.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:08 pmhttp://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/Press_Releases/2006/Aug2006/SOYNOYGallery/SOYNOYGallery.htm
Searching for his ass online . . . looks like he learned how to take photos in the army.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm“It reminds me. I think I am going to have KFC tonight!”
No kiddin’? Me to.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:20 pmHis poor stupid ass is from Auburn, AL - Robert and Patricia Chiroux - Probably his parents - no listing.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:24 pm“I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school,”
Apparently, so badly in fact that he didn’t understand the oath he took when joining.
He’s making himself out to be the victim here when in fact, he is telling every American citizen in the country, he wants to sit this one out. He has come to a conclusion about the war, based on his limited capacity to understand what is really happening in the ME. Having already admitted that intellectual persuits aren’t his stength, I question his conclusion.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pmSo this pouge doesn’t want to deploy, don’t deploy him. Just give him some chit job stateside or BCD his ass out and don’t make a dog and pony show that the left can make propaganda out of. The Army sucks at PR wars.
You wouldn’t want to be in the chit with a guy like that anyway, I would rather he stay stateside than deploy with him.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm“last thing we need is conscientious objectors within the military.”
This chickenshit is not a CO. He is a deserter. IVAW is a corps of misfit proles, tools of the anti-war left and Soros. I’ve faced off with the IVAW a number of times. They are yellow. You wanna see oxygen thieves? Get in front of IVAW at an Eagles rally. Do try to keep your cool, they’re a protected species.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:29 pmRead the soldier’s creed, boi!
May 16th, 2008 at 4:01 pmHere’s an idea for these ’selective service’ guys:
We make a separate unit … and do what the left has been pushing for and championing …
Send them into Darfur …
May 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pmAll i heard was “blah blah I’m a coward blah blah”
May 16th, 2008 at 4:13 pmFirst…Thank you for your service to our great nation. And WELCOME HOME !!!!
Second….As for this shitbag crying about having to earn his paycheck, fuck him and all he hangs out with. These useless pussbags are identical to the VVAW in every way imaginable. They all have the same story, but it’s always second and third-hand made up lies, like “Well, some guy told me this” and “somebody else said they saw that happen”
Piss on these pukes. They’re useless!!!!
May 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pmHis last comment in the Video may be what’s going to land him in prison.
Right now, Army Prosecutors may be hoisting cold ones, celebrating throwing his chicken ass in prison
May 16th, 2008 at 4:18 pmHe should ask Soros to save his G.I. ass. Ship him OUT! He does not have a choice… earn that money for college filet-boy. You have signed, made the commitment AND I’m sure cashed a few paychecks too. Time to serve.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:19 pm2nd thought we should buy him a Prius and a white flag & have him spread peace w/ his other d-bag buddies throughout the middle east.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pmpussies
May 16th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Erik, I second Mike thanks a bunch for serving, it because of you and other real military, I can rest easier at night knowing my young daughters are that much safer. Sounds like this punk was just some lib trying to get some credentials to become known and loved by the msm. Reminds me of some other cause celeb of the msm, who was found to be against any military action before he joined , joined and served on a sub for a short term. I wonder how many other libs will be coming out of the closet to get thier 15 seconds of fame and all the attention from the msm, while the real heroes only receive attention in forums like this Michael Yon and others.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:37 pmSee people like this are why we have tree lines.
Once again they seem to have made up a lot of lies especially for people who never served on the front lines. Because I sure as hell don’t remember abusing Iraqis, murdering them or looting their homes when I was patrolling Baghdad. I remember a lot of people asking for our help and then doing our damn best to help them but no viking like rape, murder and pillaging.
Really I’d like to meet these people in person so I could take them to the tree line.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:22 amWhat an absolute embarrassment to himself, his family and his country. And what’s with he and his buddies bad haircut? Him and his compatriots standing around all solemn faced and serious, his has seriously miscalculated the general mood of most real Americans. He’ll fit in San Fran and a few other places but not in rural America where he is supposedly from.
Another thing that is truly remarkable is out of the millions who are currently in the US military the nutjob who is desserting is given all the fanfare and press, not the 1000’s who show up when told and answer to call of duty.
In Fresno CA. there is a city councilman who is a Lt. Cmdr. and was reactivated in 98. After his service then he went back into the reserves and has been called to serve in Iraq and he is gladly going to fulfill his promise to serve. And it’s just that, he promised to serve and thank God for people like him and all the others who step up and promise to serve.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:46 am