Category Archives: conscientious objectors

Troops Refuse Illegal Orders

Refuse Illegal Orders” Billboard Campaign from Veterans for Peace

Upon joining the U.S. military, service members swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution and are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ is the foundation of military law in the United States. It applies to all branches of the Armed Forces and establishes definitions, jurisdiction, procedures, and punitive articles for maintaining discipline and justice. It states that all orders from superiors are assumed to be legal, but that this assumption “does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime”.

 

To contribute to the “Resist Illegal Orders” campaign, donations can be sent to Veterans for Peace, P.O. Box 1811, Madison, WI 53701 

Donations may be sent online: https://madisonvfp.org/contactordonate/

 

Sign on in support and share with others.

Join with veterans and those who believe in peace and justice.

We are increasingly aware of horrendous acts of coldblooded murder on small fishing boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. More innocents were lost on the first day of the war on Iran when the Elementary School in Minab was bombed. Of the 156 civilians murdered, 120 were children. Calls from military personnel to Conscientious Objector organizations have increased dramatically over these atrocities.

 

Last November, Sen. Mark Kelly and 5 other lawmakers with military backgrounds expressed “serious concerns” over the fishing boat murders noting they could be considered war crimes.  They reminded troops “you can refuse illegal orders” and to “stand up for our laws – our Constitution.”  Their patriotism was questioned and they were threatened with harsh penalties.

 

In Spring 2025, Veterans for Peace began a national billboard campaign to inform and remind U.S. military service members of the right to refuse illegal orders. Over two dozen billboards have gone up around the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

 

Madison’s Chapter 25 of VFP responded with a campaign to place billboards locally. Our first went up on July 13 at Volk Field on Interstate 90/94.  On Aug 18 another one was placed near Ft McCoy on Hwy. SR21. Funds have been raised to keep these billboards in view of military personnel and the public through October. Our effort is to make them available through the general election and November. The added cost will be about $2,690.00.

 

Enthusiasm for the billboards and the conversations they create is leading VFP Madison to add another billboard at Truax Air National Guard Base in Madison. The cost is $625 / week.

 

We are also requesting individuals and groups sign on to this statement: “We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, support the obligation of U.S. military service members to refuse to comply with illegal, unlawful, criminal, unethical or immoral actions. “

Help us share our vioices.

 

 

 

SERVICE MEMBER SUPPORT – Duty and Conscience

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/service-member-support

REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS – Veterans For Peace has launched a campaign to remind our brothers and sisters, sons and daughter and grandchildren who have joined the military that they have the right and the responsibility to refuse illegal orders, and that we will support them when they do.

 

 

Dare to say no

Billboard from Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace urges military officers to disobey illegal orders

“On a billboard just off the I-90/94 exit near Mauston, Uncle Sam is telling service members to disobey. The Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace is targeting their message —“I want YOU to REFUSE unlawful orders” — to soldiers training at Volk Field in Camp Douglas, more than an hour northwest of Madison.

Renting the billboard costs the Veterans for Peace chapter about $580 a week. “We’ll keep it up as long as we can afford to,” says chapter coordinator Brad Geyer. The first $4,000 is covered by a grant from the Howard Zinn Fund for Peace and Justice. Veterans for Peace is taking donations — only through checks, for now — for it to stay up as long as possible.

The message to disobey orders that rub at one’s conscience has popped up on dozens of billboards across the United States in recent months, sparked by a video last November from a half-dozen service member lawmakers, including Arizona’s Sen Mark Kelly. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the video as “reckless and seditious” as he attempted to cut Kelly’s pension and demote him (a move now blocked by a judge).

All service members are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is silent on unlawful orders but does make it a punishable offense to disobey lawful orders. Air Force Major Jason Watson was arrested July 1 for protesting the Trump Administration at the U.S. Capitol and is now potentially facing charges, including contempt toward officials…”

“The Center on Conscience & War is a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war.”

 

 

Contact the Center on Conscience & War if you’re in the US military and want to seek discharge or reassignment as a Conscientious Objector.

Center on Conscience & War

 

 

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/

 

Ukraine war: The Russians locked up for refusing to fight – BBC News

Check out at bottom

Support Russian conscientious objectors

Statement of the Movement of Conscientious Objectors (Russia) for the International Conscientious Objection Day | War Resisters’ International (wri-irg.org)

Courage to Resist – Supporting Military War Resisters Who Refuse to Fight

“People here don’t understand how much danger we’re in. Not from the opposing side. But from our own side.”

Ukraine war: The Russians locked up for refusing to fight – BBC News

“When his son was sent to fight in Ukraine, Sergei begged him not to go.

“You’ve got relatives there. Just refuse,” Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. “But he said he was going. He believed it was right. I told him that he was a zombie. And that, unfortunately, life would prove that.”

Sergei and Stas are not the real names of this father and son. We’ve changed them to protect their identities. Sergei has invited us to his home to tell us their story.

“So off he went to Ukraine. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.”

Stas told his father about one particular battle.

“He said the [Russian] soldiers had been given no cover; there was no intelligence gathering; no preparation. They’d been ordered to advance, but no one knew what lay ahead.

“But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. I told him: ‘Better to take it. This is not our war. It’s not a war of liberation.’ He said he would put his refusal in writing. He and several others who’d decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.”

Sergei made several trips to the front line to try to secure his son’s release. He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help.

Eventually his efforts paid off. Stas was sent back to Russia. He revealed to his father what had happened to him in detention: how a “different group” of Russian soldiers had tried to force him to fight…. [more at link above]

Support Russian conscientious objectors – FOR-USA (forusa.org)

“International human rights law affirms people’s right, due to principled conviction, to refuse to participate in military conflict, and conscientious objection has a long and rich history. You would think that those resisting this war would be able to find refuge in European countries, but in August, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky asked his Western allies to reject all Russian émigrés. Currently, all non-visa travel from Russia to EU countries is suspended.

As Russian men fled after Putin’s conscription announcement, Latvia closed its border with Russia, and Finland said it was likely going to be tightening its visa policy for Russians.

The Biden administration has said that Russians fleeing Putin’s draft are “welcome” in the US and encouraged them to apply for asylum in the United States. But as far back as last October, before Russia invaded Ukraine, amid tit-for-tat US-Russia tensions, Washington announced it would henceforth only issue visas to Russians through the US Embassy in Warsaw, 750 miles away from Moscow — and continued into fiscal year 2023 its FY2022 global refugee cap of 125,000.

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is petitioning European institutions to support the brave war resisters and we need the US to support them as well.”