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First Woman Conscientious Objector Resists Deployment to Iraq

Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski is the first woman conscientious objector to the Iraq war. In a press conference last week, Jashinski publicly refused deployment and spoke out against the war. She applied for conscientious objector status in 2004, but after 18 months, her claim was denied and she was ordered to weapons training to prepare for deployment. In her public statement, Jashinski said that while she had fulfilled her duties to the Army until that point, she was “forced to choose between my legal obligation to the Army and my deepest moral values…I will exercise my legal right not to pick up a weapon and to participate in a war effort.”

Also speaking at the press conference was Aimee Allison, a Gulf War resister and counselor with PeaceOut.com. Allison told the crowd that she has talked to “so many women who think there is nothing they can do because they have not seen other women act,” reports In Motion Magazine. CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin said, “I applaud Katherine’s courageous stand against the continued role of the US in bringing violence to the Middle East.”

Sources:

Associated Press 11/17/05; CODEPINK 11/17/05; In Motion Magazine 11/18/05; JashinskiÕs statement 11/17/05

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