What did he think he was joining????

[Txjake]

Did he think he was joining the Peace Corps???

Judge orders discharge of an anti-war Marine
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

A federal judge has ordered the Marines to discharge a San Jose lance corporal as a "conscientious objector" who had an aversion to killing and participating in war.

Robert Zabala, 23, must be released from the Marines Corps Reserves by mid-April, U.S. District Judge James Ware said in a 21-page ruling Thursday.

"We're very pleased with it," Zabala's attorney, Stephen Collier, said Monday. "I think it's a good decision and that it makes clear to the armed services that they can't deny conscientious-objector discharges from the military."

Zabala, a UC Santa Cruz student, began boot camp in June 2003. During a three-month period that summer, one of Zabala's superiors repeatedly gave speeches about "blowing s -- up" or "kicking some f- a-," which caused him to wonder "how someone could be so motivated to kill," he wrote in his court petition in April 2006.

In August 2003, a fellow recruit committed suicide on the shooting range, and the same superior used profanities to belittle him, Zabala wrote, saying he was "abhorred by the blood lust (the superior) seemed to possess."

An instructor showed recruits a "motivational clip" showing Iraqi corpses, explosions, gunfights and rockets set to the song "Bodies," by the heavy-metal band Drowning Pool. The lyrics included "Let the bodies hit the floor," and Zabala said he cried -- his only time while in boot camp -- while other recruits nodded their heads in time with the beat and smiled.

"The sanctity of life that formed the moral center of petitioner's life was being challenged," Collier wrote in a court filing.

After Zabala returned to UC Santa Cruz, he had a conversation with a fellow Marine in May 2004. "I began to think about the thousands of people who died in the past year in war, who didn't die due to just one soldier or suicide bomber, but largely by an organization," Zabala recounted. "This organization trains to kill human life."

Zabala, who followed some Buddhist-related traditions but was not a practicing Buddhist, applied in June 2004 for a discharge on the basis of conscientious-objector status, but was denied one, court records show.

Zabala's grandfather served in Vietnam, his parents and uncles were in the Navy, one cousin is in the Air Force and another cousin is the Marines, according to Collier.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...AGJEP0JVC1.DTL

This article appeared on page D - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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[420SEL]

I'll agree that his original decision to join the Corps doesn't seem to have been well thought out, but I also don't think it would do any good to force him to stay.

[raymr]

Maybe he thought he was going to be a marine biologist.

[Txjake]

Originally Posted by 420SEL

I'll agree that his original decision to join the Corps doesn't seem to have been well thought out, but I also don't think it would do any good to force him to stay.

right about that, it is just astonishing that anyone would be shocked or surprised about what you learn in basic training in the Marine Corps

[John Doe]

Good riddance. Wish they could have DD'd him though and screwed up his record.

[pj67coll]

I agree. What a moron. Good riddance.

- Peter.

[Carleton Hughes]

Perhaps all he wanted was "A few good men...."?

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by Txjake

right about that, it is just astonishing that anyone would be shocked or surprised about what you learn in basic training in the Marine Corps

I dunno, maybe some of that becoming inured to blood-letting and death is necessary but there's something dehumanizing about it.

The more I think about it, it's a bizarre statement about our society. It wasn't that long ago that we were killing gooks right and left and now it's Hajis. Demonizing the "enemy" is not a step forward IMO.

This line here is interesting:

"The sanctity of life that formed the moral center of petitioner's life was being challenged," Collier wrote in a court filing.

They do that with child soldiers in Africa to a more extreme degree but not totally dissimilar.

[dlssmith]

Why does it take lawyers and a judge writing 21 pages to convince the Marines that they don't need this dips**t? I thought they had a good process to get rid of the loonies that sign up for the wrong reasons?

[pj67coll]

Originally Posted by dlssmith

Why does it take lawyers and a judge writing 21 pages to convince the Marines that they don't need this dips**t? I thought they had a good process to get rid of the loonies that sign up for the wrong reasons?

I would have thought so too. Apparently not, or maybe they are just desperate for cannon fodder.

- Peter.

[aklim]

Originally Posted by dlssmith

Why does it take lawyers and a judge writing 21 pages to convince the Marines that they don't need this dips**t? I thought they had a good process to get rid of the loonies that sign up for the wrong reasons?

Because, if not, I could join the military, get the bennies and when it is time to pay up, well, I am a CO. Sorry.

[Angel]

I believe its the judges and 21 page documents that created the need for another judge and 21 pages to get someone out....

The Marines are part of the government, can't have the "government" arbitrarily letting people go just becuase their Gunny said to...(Although, as a Reservist, I'm not adverse to such an idea).

-John

[Larry Delor]

Maybe he didn't leave room for the possibility that once he was going to join, he would be re-programmed into something the Armed Forces could use for something other than a sandbag.

[aklim]

I still think it is a guy who is there to suck on the USMC's tit and when they called the marker, he is running because he doesn't want to pay back. Wish they would put these freeloaders in prison.

[dlssmith]

Originally Posted by aklim

Wish they would put these freeloaders in prison.

Please, no. He's wasted quite enough public money. He should be sent a bill for the three squares and bed that he got while employed by the USMC. That would fix him.