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.

Another soldier told AFP he had to boost his dosage of medication to treat anxiety and social agoraphobia -- two of many lingering mental wounds he carries since his deployments in Iraq -- before testifying.

Some 300,000 of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from the psychological traumas of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or both, an independent study showed last month.

A group of veterans sitting in the hearing room gazed blankly as their comrades' testimonies shattered the official version that the US effort in Iraq is succeeding.

Almost to a man, the soldiers who testified denounced serious flaws in the chain of command in Iraq.

Luis Montalvan, a former army captain, accused high-ranking US officers of numerous failures in Iraq, including turning a blind eye to massive fraud on the part of US contractors.


Ex-Marine Jason Lemieux told how a senior officer had altered a report he had written because it slammed US troops of using excessive force, firing off thousands of rounds of machine gun fire and hundreds of grenades in the face of a feeble four rounds of enemy fire.

Goldsmith accused US officials of censorship.

"Everyone who manages a blog, Facebook or Myspace out of Iraq has to register every video, picture, document of any event they do on mission," Goldsmith told AFP after the hearing.

"You're almost always denied before you are allowed to send them home."

Officials take "hard facts and slice them into small pieces to make them presentable to the secretary of state or the president -- and all with the intent of furthering the occupation of Iraq," Goldsmith added.

Chiroux is one of thousands of US soldiers who have deserted since the Iraq war began in 2003, according to figures issued last year by the US army.

But while many seek refuge in Canada, the young soldier vowed to stay in the United States to fight "whatever charges the army levels at me."

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.

"I cannot deploy to Iraq, carry a weapon and not be part of the problem," he told AFP.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080516144757.0ds7otes&show_article=1

if you refuse to do your duty as a member of the military you deserve to go to jail. i dont care if you think it is wrong or not. if you are told to go you had better get ready pack your crap and kiss everyone goodbye. he is a coward.

Don't all military personel take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies foriegn and domestic?

If the Iraq police action ( no declaration of war, so what is it exactly?) is unconstitutional as the young man suggests, then is he not upholding his oath?

But what do I know, I'm just some dude.

If the president told you to kill your first born I guess you would do that too...

that is really saying something about this war.

if the soldiers are calling for help from their country
they should be listened to, after all they are paying the ultimate price in this war, their lives

has the government not learned anything from the past???

i served and am still serving my country babe. what did you do

and i don't think it is illegal if the congress keeps pouring billions of dollars every year into it.

oops....really wrong room

It's not about serving, it's about listening to some idiot tell us we need to kill innocent people when it really is not necessary...war is propaganda...and I would fight if I were drafted..am too old now...however I still feel there are other ways to solve the problems we face...the war has been going on for too long...everyone knows it...you'd be a fool to think otherwise...and some of the countries that we really need to watch we aren't, where that crazy red guy is, forget his name, bush is too scared to go there, cause they will nuke us for sure...

i have family members and friends in the military who serve our country and of whom i am very proud for doing so.

and most of them would agree with you cplichristmd

all i'm saying is if you've been there and seen what's going on first hand, do you really agree with it personally

we have a right as a democratic society to voice our opinions

I never said illegal, just unconstitutional, which in todays Political landscape, somehow these things are different.

It's legal because, in lieu of a formal declaration of war, they passed resolutions to give themselves permission.

North Korea??? maybe

Thank You, I am stupid about this stuff...

every man and woman signed that piece of paper and it is in detail that you are to do as your told and go where they tell you to go. if it is illegal well get your piece of paper babe and start a petition to impeach everyone involved it voting to fund, send troops over and oversee the "war". hurry you better get working. hey after that why don't you just go ahead and try to get everyone to charge them with war crimes too. hows that sound.

funny how that works, huh

you do and you should just saying people who refuse to go when they swore to do so make me pissed.

Takes more guts to do what he is doing my friend. A true American, one that stands up and says this is wrong(which it has since the beginning) Bless his brave heart to stay here and accept his charges.

I have to ask, Cplichristmd, If your CO orders you to shoot children, are you going to do it? How about American citizens? A member of your own family?

Just want to know where you would draw the line in the sand so to speak.

no duh and i am not going to get into an argument with a question as stupid as that one.

yes...I'm curious...do tell