Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2009, pages 64-65

Waging Peace

War Resister Refuses Deployment to Iraq, Receives Honorable Discharge

	Veteran Matthis Chiroux followed his convictions in refusing to deploy to Iraq and successfully challenged his misconduct hearing (Staff photo P. Pasquini).

ON APRIL 21 an administrative separation board at the Army Human Resources Command in St. Louis, Missouri heard the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist who publicly refused activation and deployment orders to Iraq last summer. After a four-hour hearing, which featured testimony by National Lawyers’ Guild president Marjorie Cohn, Chiroux received an honorable discharge.

“This landmark decision means not only am I a free man, I’m free to continue school this fall with the G.I. Bill that I earned while on active duty,” an ecstatic Chiroux e-mailed following his victory. “Though this discharge is identical to the one I refused in exchange for having this hearing, I can now rest easy knowing I never submitted, I never backed down, and the Army has heard my story.”

On Father’s Day one year ago, with his father by his side, the young Alabaman announced his refusal to serve in Iraq and participate in “an illegal and immoral occupation.” He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2007 after four years of service in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Philippines, and placed in the Individual Ready Reserves.

Following the 25-year-old’s refusal to deploy, the military did not contact him until he and 10 other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War marched on the final presidential debate Oct. 15, 2008 in Hempstead, New York. There the veterans demanded to question then-Senators Barack Obama and John McCain regarding their war policies and plans to care for returning veterans. Chiroux was arrested by police, and three days later the Army charged him with “misconduct” for refusing to deploy.

Chiroux said his hearing confirmed his belief that military resistance to illegal occupations “is finding new breath amongst troops who are fed up with the status quo.”

—Elaine Pasquini