The 23-year-old New Yorker said he refused to support a war he believed was illegal and immoral.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Paredes to nine months of confinement. Paredes and prosecutors left the courtroom without commenting.
Paredes had requested conscientious objector status after he refused to board the ship. A Navy officer found that his refusal was based on political opposition to the Iraq war, not a moral opposition to all war, and recommended it be denied.link
It’s not easy for older folks to think of someone as a hero simply because he refuses to participate in crimes against humanity. That’s just being a decent human being.
But the bar has been lowered so far it drags the ground, and in a society, if one can call it that, based on the principle that it is better to spend a dollar to murder your neighbor’s child than a dime to care for your own, decency is the enemy of the rich man’s hold on the gold.
Pablo is a Hero, by anybody’s definition.
He is a hero.
I’m glad he got such a short sentence.
than to go along with it. [my brother’s words of regret to me before he shipped out to Vietnam.]
I hope this man’s courage sustains him in prison and after he gets out.
I hope he gets through his time with the least amount of pain and suffering. That he would chose this, to suffer instead of inflict suffering is the right and hardest choice.
Heard him on Democracy Now this morning.
He read the statement that he made before the military court. Very moving.
Obligatory plug for Pacifica Radio.
KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles with Democracy Now broadcast at 6 am and 9 am weekdays. Listen on-line at http://www.kpfk.org.
You can also stream Democracy Now at democracynow.org. or go directly to http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/13/1437208 to hear the Paredes segment.
as I am unfortunately sure it will at some point for all of us, I hope that I, too, will have his courage to stand on principles…
I once heard that the true measure of a person, will be demonstrated when they are faced with standing up for their principles or backing down in the face of adversity for those principles. I believe Pablo has measured up admirably and I can only hope that his courage in standing up for what he believes in, will carry him far in life. I am sure the reichwingers will label him a coward, a simpering liberal, yet he stood up and accepted the unknown for believing in his principles and standing his ground in upholding them. I can only hope and pray that I too will have that same courage if I am ever placed in a situation that demands me to make a choice of that magnitude.