Camillo Mejia's Heroism in Spite of 'Desertion'
An Immigrant’s Intrepid Initiative Against Ignorance
SGT. MEJIA’S HEROIC, COURAGEOUS COMMITMENT TO HONESTY
THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY THAN I HAVE THE TIME AND RESOURCES TO DEVELOP NOW. SO SAYING, THIS STRIKES ME AS ONE OF THE HIDDEN, YET CENTRAL EVENTS OF THIS MOMENT IN TIME.
Camillo Mejia wended his way to South Florida from Costa Rica. His family left the “Switzerland of Latin America,” on many indices of well being ahead of the United States, for the economic potency that appeared palpable in the percolating cauldron of the Sunshine State, in particular in Miami. They were also fleeing the conflict that swept across Northern Costa Rica and tropical Nicaragua in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s which culminated in the criminal actions of Ollie North and others in running the illegal Iran-Contra incursion, the sum of which actions were making that area of the world virtually unihabitable when the young Mejia was a child.
Camillo never obtained his citizenship, however, and a stint in the National Guard may have been a useful step toward legitimizing his presence in that way, or it may have been a more mundane desire to enhance his income, or even an answer to a call that impelled some semblance of service from him. Perhaps enlisting, in one form or another, was a prerequisite for remaining here as a non-citizen. In any case, from all accounts of those who served with him and under, him---as opposed to officers who oversaw his duty, and then testified and railed against him---Sgt. Mejia was an inspired soldier, a dutiful comrade, someone who knew how to fight and survive. As Oliver Perez---another of the “Army of Juan’s” fighting for petrochemical supremacy for the Bush family---stated, "He was always a great leader. He always took care of his men. He was very truthful. I trusted him with my life.”
In the middle of his process of becoming a soldier, of course, the hostilities in Iraq began and sent him to a posting there as an infantry NCO, one of the fighters who led the charge at the squadron level. He fought from April until June last year, in skirmishes and firefights all along the route of the mad dash for Baghdad, and then acted as one of the gatekeepers for the processing of Iraqi prisoners, at Al Assad, an airfield that U.S. troops had overrun. As the hatred of the so-called “Haji’s” escalated to the level of the feelings against ‘gooks’ in Vietnam, on the one hand, and the virulence of the Iraqi response to Americans increased, on the other---$2,000 ‘bounties’ now in effect on the heads of soldiers---Mejia’s original doubts about the war grew apace, until he could no longer in good conscience serve as what he believed was an accessory to murder and genocide.
He began this martial march only cautiously convinced of the rectitude of America’s assault on Saddam’s ‘terrorist state.’ When he returned stateside in October, however, for a furlow that ended with his commander giving him a direct order to return to the Mid-East, he refused further involvement in what he termed “this oil-driven war.” The relentless asault on Iraqi civilians particularly perturbed Sgt. Mejia, for example, as when a sniper under his command shot and killed a ten year old boy who was carrying a rifle. As well, the brutal tactics that his superiors ordered against “shepherds” and other farm-hands slated for interrogation horrified Camillo.
Prior to surrendering to Federal authorities, in order to face Court Martial and take a stand that his legal position was viable, he filed a report about some of the vicious methods that his own officers and “intelligence” operatives commanded and conducted at Al Assad. Sleep deprivation---48 hours without allowing slumber was routine---included using such torture as loading automatic pistols next to the ears of those who dared to doze off in the face of screaming, sledgehammer pounding, and other assaultive and invasive wake-up calls. These were farmers and laborers for the most part, too, neither soldiers nor ‘terrorists’ in evidence until they left U.S. custody. Mejia lodged these protests, against what higher-ups had delegated to his unit, in March, well before the current prisoner-abuse scandal broke.
Sgt. Mejia’s defense, the introduction of most of which the military rejected, included several sophisticated arguments that on the surface seemed persuasive. He contended that his orders to fight were of the nature of crimes against humanity; he argued that he had fulfilled the maximum, eight year, term of service required of a non-resident alien, during the Summer of 2003; and he held that our treaty with Costa Rica, which specifically disallows the U.S. from forcing Costa Rican citizens into service, exempted him from service once he refused to return. The military judge rejected hearing about any of this, however, only allowing some testimony about the mistreatment of Iraqis as exculpatory evidence.The case turned on the sole charge of ‘desertion from a combat unit’, and on the sole witness the tribunal allowed, Mejia’s CO from outside Baghdad.
Bob Herbert, in a reasoned plea to PAY ATTENTION on the New York Times’ Op-Ed page, compared Mejia’s plight explicitly to the experience of GI’s in Viet Nam, where any enthusiasm for the war as a just fight quickly faded, and the young men there insulated themselves with attitudes that might help them survive, whatever the long term emotional burdens that resulted. He calls this trial, which peace activists from around the world attended as part of the build-up to witness the G-8 meeting in nearby Sea Island, much more important to an understanding of this war than the pathetic lambasting of “the hapless” Eric Sivits as the Al Ghraib scapegoat of the moment.
As Herbert notes, Mejia’s courageous choice gives us access to understanding about the war that no other highly visible case has provided. The deeper meaning of this matter consists of at least two intersecting phenomena, both of which will await further data to allow a fuller telling. The first is the class bias inherent in the war, whatever angle of analysis or observation one favors. A recent comic strip parodies this situation, with a ‘recruiter’s’ response to one of the elementary school kids he is now hoping to ‘enlist in advance.’
“What’s diversity?” the fourth grader asks the burly Sergeant Major.
The non-PR-certified NCO responds without hesitation, “That’s when you get poor Blacks, poor Latinos, and poor Whites all fighting alongside each other to make the world a safer place for our interests.”
The kiddo’s expression is savvy skepticism, however, his “interests” more attuned to staying alive than to fighting a war over oil and the geopolitical dominance of Halliburton, Bechtel, et. al. No matter how we might succeed in burying this aspect of the U.S. military in the heat of battle, it will emerge as war after war after war after war engulf us, as the policies of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, et.al. energetically entail, and which the likes of Bill Clinton and John Kerry cannot altogether avoid.
The second key point in Camillo Mejia’s willingness to go to prison before committing more mayhem and murder in the name of money is his ethnic background. African Americans have become more disenchanted with Army life over the decades since Viet Nam, although economic circumstances still give them the greatest number of positions in many combat units. Working class Whites clearly join the ranks for all the same reasons that all poor people are willing to trade sweat and flesh for succor and a shot at success.
The critical population component in the military today, however, is the Hispanic element. With wars looming throughout Latin America, and with immigrants seeking residence more and more willing to barter blood for citizenship, Sgt. Mejio’s case may be a benchmark for our nation’s capacity to visit butchery abroad at will. This thoughtful young NCO, so clearly a courageous and capable combatant, may represent a benchmark sort of contradiction inside the U.S. armed forces’ role in our rulers’ overall plans for hegemony. A more and more mercenary approach, with more and more imperial overtones, and less and less pretense of principle or justice, may pend just past the horizon that Camillo’s decision marks for us.
As his mother stated outside the Court Martial at Fort Stewart, "I want to know why my son is guilty for trying to do the right thing," she said in Spanish. A substantial portion of the enlisted personnel feel this way, at least a third of the ones who’ve been speaking to me off the record. It’s a hopeful sign, if we can manage to avoid Armageddon’s embrace long enough for folks to stand up, both for themselves, and for priorities more munificent than the further empowerment of Plutocratic thugs who already own practically the whole planet.
So much remains hidden in this story, the resources to cover this tale as it deserves coverage of singularly little interest of the “embedding” media whose raison d’etre is the safe expansion of corporate sway. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, however, Sgt. M will meet with me and some organization or outlet will pay for the deeper story here, a confluence of meaning worthy of Tolstoy or Garcia Marquez, and, even if thus beyond my meager talents, at least I’ll pay it the best attention I’m able to muster.
So saying, dear cousins, “THAT’S MY STORY AND I’M STICKING TO IT!!!”