Ex-soldier Joe Glenton, who was court martialled for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, writes in support of Michael Lyons, the Royal Navy medic now in jail for the same reason, after being convinced by the Wikileaks revelations that the war was wrong.
Michael Lyons has been sentenced to seven months in the military prison in Colchester a week ago for refusing to undertake rifle training. Unsurprisingly, it received little attention from the mainstream media.
One testimony at his trial, by a witness against him, a petty officer, typifies the ethical rot which infects senior ranks through to political commanders. ‘I told him.’ explained this contented lackey. ‘That I was not sending him to war, I was teaching him to use a rifle.’
So, I would add, he could serve... in a war.
Professional, highly trained and selectively applied stupidity is still stupidity and makes a mockery of the courts. Although, in my experience court martials are like casinos, the house nearly always wins as a matter of design.
This, evidently, was a man blinkered enough to see only his little part in isolation, his own little corner of a crime. He had managed to compartmentalise the issue, he was only teaching rifle training. What a useful idiot to his superiors. It must beg the question -- what kind of military do we want in this country? An unthinking one? Armed men in a moral vacuum? A military which, by these qualifications, would turn on its own people if ordered to do so? Perhaps this would be worth mulling over for a moment.
Yet not everyone is infected and not everyone is a willing idiot. Michael Lyons, for example, is 24-years-old, a sailor since eighteen and has a firmer grasp of the ethical deficit of the Afghan occupation than his superiors, the heads of the services and the simpering politicians who decided he would be sent out to kill or die for their ambitions. It seems this is often the case; it is the lower ranks who shrug off the role of puppet. There are enough Bradley Mannings, Malcom Kendall-Smiths, Ehren Watadas, Ben Griffins to support that assertion and more are appearing.
Michael Lyons is this country’s latest political prisoner and I have no doubt he will emerge from the military’s half-cocked gulag as fired up as I did but he will need your support. Every day that I was in the same prison for the same 'crime', the letters made the difference.
This, evidently, was a man blinkered enough to see only his little part in isolation, his own little corner of a crime. He had managed to compartmentalise the issue, he was only teaching rifle training. What a useful idiot to his superiors. It must beg the question -- what kind of military do we want in this country? An unthinking one? Armed men in a moral vacuum? A military which, by these qualifications, would turn on its own people if ordered to do so? Perhaps this would be worth mulling over for a moment.
Yet not everyone is infected and not everyone is a willing idiot. Michael Lyons, for example, is 24-years-old, a sailor since eighteen and has a firmer grasp of the ethical deficit of the Afghan occupation than his superiors, the heads of the services and the simpering politicians who decided he would be sent out to kill or die for their ambitions. It seems this is often the case; it is the lower ranks who shrug off the role of puppet. There are enough Bradley Mannings, Malcom Kendall-Smiths, Ehren Watadas, Ben Griffins to support that assertion and more are appearing.
Michael Lyons is this country’s latest political prisoner and I have no doubt he will emerge from the military’s half-cocked gulag as fired up as I did but he will need your support. Every day that I was in the same prison for the same 'crime', the letters made the difference.
They are a window into other people’s lives for a few short minutes and can be reread again and again. But for me, as I became more radical, the greatest thing was that everyday at evening meal, the 'screws' would have a stack of mail, all marked Glenton, sometimes up to 200 letters a day which they had to open in front of me. They disliked it immensely and this was, of course, pleasing and good for morale. The letters each represented a small victory against the creaking regime, to go with the bigger one which we each win when we say no.
Write to Michael Lyons:
236 Lyons D Company
MCTC Berechurch Hall Road
Colchester CO2 9NU.
236 Lyons D Company
MCTC Berechurch Hall Road
Colchester CO2 9NU.
See also:
Facebook: Support Michael Lyons...
Facebook: Support Michael Lyons...
Michael Lyons in jail for refusing to fight in Afghanistan
Joe Glenton on his way to jail for refusing to fight in Afghanistan
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