Most Comprehensive Interview to Date

I was interviewed during all three hours of the PeterMac Show this past Saturday night (11/07). With this extended time format I had the opportunity to go into greater detail about my time in GTMO, the process of conscientious objection, and my change from being a pro-war Statist to an anti-war anarchist.

*The linked mp3 files exclude commercials.

Daniel Lakemacher - 11/07/2009: Hr. 1

Saturday, 07 November 2009 00:00

Daniel Lakemacher of WarIsImmoral.com. Daniel filed a request to be discharged from the United States Navy as a conscientious objector (CO). After 131 more days of being forced to work under the threat of imprisonment, he was finally freed from his involuntary servitude on September 11, 2009.

Download | Right Click and select "Save File As" or "Save Target As" to download this file.

Daniel Lakemacher - 11/07/2009: Hr. 2

Saturday, 07 November 2009 00:00

Daniel Lakemacher of WarIsImmoral.com. Daniel filed a request to be discharged from the United States Navy as a conscientious objector (CO). After 131 more days of being forced to work under the threat of imprisonment, he was finally freed from his involuntary servitude on September 11, 2009.

Download | Right Click and select "Save File As" or "Save Target As" to download this file.

Daniel Lakemacher - 11/07/2009: Hr. 3

Saturday, 07 November 2009 00:00

Daniel Lakemacher of WarIsImmoral.com. Daniel filed a request to be discharged from the United States Navy as a conscientious objector (CO). After 131 more days of being forced to work under the threat of imprisonment, he was finally freed from his involuntary servitude on September 11, 2009.

Download | Right Click and select "Save File As" or "Save Target As" to download this file.

From Thought to Action

In my continued brainstorming about how I can best work toward ending war, I decided it would be helpful to gain some hands-on experience with others who are trying to achieve that same goal. To this end, I spent last week volunteering at the Center on Conscience & War (CCW) in Washington, D.C.

Since 1940, CCW has been advocating for the rights of conscientious objectors as well as providing them with invaluable advice and supportive counseling. Although it was originally formed by an association of religious groups and is still considered a "faith based organization," CCW is adamant about its support of all conscientious objectors to war. I quickly discovered that my own experience of their support for my non-religious conscientious objection is but one case among many.

A second example of their service to non-religious objectors turned out to be one of the biggest highlights of my week. One of the days when I was volunteering, I met a former Naval Officer who had been discharged just one week prior to my arrival at CCW, and like myself, this individual wanted to do some volunteer work as well. This opportunity was extremely meaningful for me as the two of us were both discharged recently and could so readily relate to each other's experiences. I felt an almost immediate and strong level of kinship, and in addition to participating in some of CCW's training together, we also spent time swapping stories and congratulating each other over lunch.

We resonated over the sense of isolation that we each felt throughout the process. Not that we didn't have the support and encouragement of both significant people in our lives and from CCW, but more so the feeling that even our best friend or an experienced counselor could not offer the unspoken understanding of someone who was personally facing the obstacles of having a conscientious objection as a member of the military. The reality is that it's definitely not hard to feel out of place in an organization of hundreds of thousands of people, especially when it seems that you are the only one to have a moral resignation about participating in war.

Echoing each other's sentiments, we both agreed that it would have been great to be connected with someone else who was going through the process of conscientious objection at the same time as we were. Amidst the myriad military support organizations and peace activist groups, neither of us is aware of anything geared specifically at connecting conscientious objectors to each other. However, given all my recent thinking about how I can advance liberty and stop war, I immediately jumped to the possibility of starting such a network myself.

For the moment, my ideas have only been briefly discussed, but it's definitely an exciting option and a project that would have particular meaning for me. Your feedback is appreciated, and to help evidence the very real world of military conscientious objection, included below is a slideshow from CCW's website. The photos are all of recent conscientious objectors, and they are mostly arranged in a before (uniformed) and after (civilian) format, with yours truly included near the end.

*As a final note, CCW isn't limited to helping military personnel with conscientious objection. They also deal with issues of AWOL/UA, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Hardship discharge, Pregnancy/Parenthood discharge, and many other concerns of military members and their families. If you, or someone you know, would be in need of their help either call them directly at 1-800-379-2679 or call the GI Rights Hotline of which they are a member organization.

My blogging schedule has gotten a little off, but stay tuned as next week I'm planning on meeting members of Free Keene!

Conformity & Compliance vs. Conscience & Consistency

As a followup to my interview on Antiwar Radio, I was contacted by the host of another podcast, Brett Veinotte. Brett expressed a desire to interview me specifically about the military's culture of obedience. Initially, I learned about Brett when he did an education series on the Complete Liberty Podcast, and then, about a month ago, Brett started his own show, School Sucks. In just this short time, his show has quickly become one of the most popular education podcasts available on the web, with downloads from around the world.

Outside of authoritarian family dynamics, the governmental indoctrination system commonly referred to as "Public School" is undoubtedly the single greatest propaganda tool for manipulating the minds of young people toward a willingness to murder and/or die in the military. Were it not for the nearly constant messages that it's the highest virtue to be killed while trying to kill others (in uniform of course) and that without waging war we'd all be saying "Heil Hitler" or speaking Japanese, there would undoubtedly be few people so willing to risk their lives on command. Today the message has changed to the threats of wearing turbans and reading the Koran, but the principles of fear and a tribal mentality remain the same. As a result, Brett's work in highlighting the harmful effect of so-called public education is an invaluable part of progressing from a society that condones war to one that condemns it.

What follows is some background information about Brett as seen on his website edu-lu-tion.com:

In my 10+ years of teaching, "school sucks" is perhaps the most common phrase I've heard students use to describe their feelings about public education. But this seemingly bitter and reductive slogan is actually quite clever. When taken literally, "school sucks" is perhaps the most accurate and astute synopsis of the system I've ever heard. Here's why...

The twelve-year process of an American public education has a dramatic effect on the mind of a child. When we first enter school at age six, many of our best personal attributes are already in place. We are curious, innovative, unique, creative and hopeful in ways that we will rarely be able to replicate throughout the rest of our lives. But over time, school sucks those essential attributes out of too many of us...and replaces them with predictability, obedience and apathy.

Brett includes a "Critical Thinking Question" as part of each episode, and for this show the question is, "How could disobedience to authority save millions of lives?" Whether you already know the answer or not, I'm confident that you'll find the content of the show to be thought-provoking and insightful.

The show is available for listening/download via podOmatic by clicking here,

or

You can use the following link to find School Sucks in the iTunes Store.

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Additional Resources:

Daniel Lakemacher on Antiwar Radio

http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/09/16/daniel-lakemacher/

The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram

http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html

An Exploration of Self-Responsibility and Its Effects on Obedience by Wes Bertrand

http://www.logicallearning.net/obedience.html

Radio Interview

On Tuesday I had the privilege of being interviewed by Scott Horton on KAOS 95.9 FM in Austin, Texas. Scott is the host of Antiwar Radio, and in addition to his live show, he publishes his interviews as podcasts. The bulk of Scott's questions were related to my time in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but I also had the opportunity to provide an overview of how to be discharged as a conscientious objector. I'm excited about the increased publicity this has brought to my own site, especially since many in the anti-war movement are unaware of the powerful impact that can be made by encouraging an active duty member to file as a conscientious objector.

Included below are links to the interview, as well as some information from the "About" page of antiwar.com. Antiwar.com is a unique source for detailed information that is hard to find through any of the major media outlets. Particularly in light of the recent U.S. military attack in Somalia, I encourage you to utilize this site as a means to discover critical information and alternate perspectives on the immoral actions perpetrated under the guise of United States foreign policy.

MP3 Download (25:03)

iTunes Store Interview Link

This site is devoted to the cause of non-interventionism and is read by libertarians, pacifists, leftists, "greens," and independents alike, as well as many on the Right who agree with our opposition to imperialism. Our initial project was to fight against intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton presidency. We applied the same principles to Clinton's campaigns in Haiti and Kosovo and bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan. Our politics are libertarian: our opposition to war is rooted in Randolph Bourne's concept that "War is the health of the State." With every war, America has made a "great leap" into statism, and as Bourne emphasized, "it is during war that one best understands the nature of that institution [the State]." At its core, that nature includes an ever increasing threat to individual liberty and the centralization of political power.

. . .

Our dedication to libertarian principles, inspired in large part by the works and example of the late Murray N. Rothbard, is reflected on this site. While openly acknowledging that we have an agenda, the editors take seriously our purely journalistic mission, which is to get past the media filters and reveal the truth about America's foreign policy. Citing a wide variety of sources without fear or favor, and presenting our own views in the regular columns of various contributors, we clearly differentiate between fact and opinion, and let our readers know which is which.

Keep reading . . .

Days 124-129 - I've Seen It in Writing

I've now seen the "orders" authorizing my discharge, and I've been told that Friday will be the day when I'm finally released.

This blog and my corresponding website http://warisimmoral.com will continue, as I hope that it will serve as an inspiration and catalyst for others working for the military ("uniformed" or civilian) to abandon their support of the immoral institution known as the United States Department of Defense. What follows is an introduction and link to an article exposing the false reasoning used to rationalize why "coalition forces" are justified in occupying Afghanistan.

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The Myth of Afghan Terrorism

In his speech about Afghanistan, given at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London on 4 September 2009, British prime minister Gordon Brown argued that this is a war to protect people across the West from terrorism.

It is ‘not just a mission to protect the British people from the threat of terrorism but an international mission involving over 40 countries’, he said, ‘because we all face the same threat. We’ve all seen the reality of this threat: in Bali, Madrid, Mumbai, and of course on the streets of London four years ago.’ (1)

Raising the spectre of recent terrorist attacks to justify the war in Afghanistan is highly disingenuous - because Afghan terrorism is a myth. No Afghan citizens have been involved in any of the terror attacks mentioned by Brown. And even where non-Afghans have allegedly received funding or training from inside Afghanistan in order to carry out terrorist attacks, their drive and motivation has come from elsewhere.

A brief overview of recent attacks suggests that, contrary to what Brown says, the problem of contemporary terrorism will not be resolved by occupying Afghanistan.

Continue reading as Patrick Hayes details the lack of Afghan involvement in each of the referenced terrorist incidents @ http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7350/

Days 46-49 - Heather Speaks Out

I'm continuing to only intermittently post while on leave, but the following was too exciting not to make available immediately.

After finally being able to watch the movie, Sir! No Sir!, that I previously referenced on Day 23, my wife, Heather, unbeknownst to me, wrote the attached letter to the movie's producers. While I had been vaguely aware that she had written someone after we finished the movie, I hadn't given it a second thought until today, when I stumbled on the letter which is posted on the Sir! No Sir! website at the following link.

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Thank you Adam (and everyone who was part of "Sir! No Sir!"),

My husband, Daniel, and I just finished watching "Sir! No Sir!", and my first impulse was to immediately write to you all. Daniel is in the middle of attempting to obtain a discharge from the Navy as a conscientious objector, and I don't feel like I can adequately express how meaningful it was for me to watch the film and realize that we're not alone.

After having "served" for six months in Guantanamo Bay, Daniel came home as a very subdued and troubled version of his former self. For more than a year, he and I struggled with how to make sense of the things that he had witnessed and experienced there. I include myself in his struggle because of the fact that he received no validation of his questioning from the limited mental health resources that were made available to him upon his return home.

This meant that I was his sounding board, safety net, and psychologist for the past year and a half, hardly roles that I am well equipped to fulfill, especially while trying to maintain my own sanity. Watching him try to make sense of his participation in war has forced me to question so many of the things that I have been taught about war, government, America, and obedience. I've done a complete 180 in my views and was actually the one who suggested that he research conscientious objection because of how distressed he was over his continued involvement with the military.

Despite this, I have often felt very alone in this process. Daniel wasn't part of a unit that was sent to Guantanamo Bay; he was essentially loaned out by himself to another command. This meant that there was no one who had gone through it all with him to talk with about it when he came home. Filing for conscientious objector status has proven to be a rather solitary experience as well. It was months after he made the decision to file before he found another sailor who had successfully obtained a discharge. As a fairly introverted person, I've found it similarly difficult to find people who were sympathetic enough to the situation that I could speak freely with them.

And then we watched "Sir! No Sir!" In one sense, it was horrifying to know what sorts of atrocities were perpetrated by the U.S. government against both innocent foreigners and its own citizens. At the same time, I felt relief wash over me as I realized that there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have, at the very least, risked imprisonment rather than fight a war. There was an entire movement that forced the U.S. government, with all its impressive technology, to retreat. I was born almost a decade after the Vietnam War was over, so I have no first-hand knowledge of that time.

As you're well aware, the "history" that I was fed in government schools is significantly different than the events that you presented. It gives me so much hope to know that the American people themselves have ended at least one war before, which means that they can do it again. It's gotten a lot harder because the government has gotten better at managing its image, has created a perception of a "voluntary" military, and has isolated many people from being face to face with the consequences of their participation in war.

Still, seeing the courage of those who were willing to be ridiculed, beaten, court-martialed, and imprisoned for their insistence that they would not participate in immoral actions was incredibly encouraging. It caused me to think that there must be additional ways for me to actively oppose the current wars that the U.S. government is perpetrating. I don't feel quite so alone now, and I feel like I've had the drink of cool water that I needed to keep going in a stressful situation.

Thank you again for speaking out about the experiences of so many others who have been in even more difficult situations and come through with their integrity intact.

Heather Lakemacher

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I haven't a clue as to how I would be able to cope with all that has, and is continuing to happen, were it not for the incredible empathy, insight, and companionship of Heather. I believe I first told her more than eight years ago that she is the love of my life, the woman of my dreams, and above all, she's my best friend. Amazingly, despite how much we've both changed in the intervening years, these claims are no less true today than when I first made them.

Heather's Letter: Sir! No Sir! Blog

General Website: http://www.sirnosir.com/

Days 36-38 - Hear ye, hear ye . . .

There's a whole new look to the website, so please let me know if you've noticed anything that's not working properly or that you think could be improved.

Of more interest is that today, of all days, an article I wrote entitled "Behind the Wire: An Insider's Reflections on Gitmo" was published on the homepage of antiwar.com. It may at first seem very similar to the "Reflections on GTMO" post I made previously, but I believe that the published article much more concisely exposes the factors of dehumanization and obedience-based morality that framed my experiences while I was deployed.

As for the most pressing news, my informal hearing was conducted today, and both Heather, who served as a witness, and I are physically and emotionally exhausted. I'm truly grateful for those who testified as witnesses on my behalf, as well as all of you who submitted statements expressing your understanding of what I believe and how I have changed. The fact that you were willing to take action on my behalf as an expression of your support is both extremely meaningful to me on a personal level and also serves as reassurance that I have clearly conveyed the depth and strength of my beliefs.

Overall, I believe that the hearing went well. I honestly think that my sincerity was indisputably evidenced through my own statements, those of the four witnesses, and the many letters I presented. I was also happy to learn that some of my regular readers have been those in my Chain of Command, including the "Investigating Officer" who had printed copies of each of my blogs. To each of you, please take seriously my conscientious objection. It is not merely an idealistic or eccentric belief that has no pertinence to daily life. Instead, the lack of conscientious objectors has enabled war, furthering the needless loss of life for millions of people just like you.

Day 31 - Listen Closely

I'm excited to report that the message of warisimmoral.com is continuing to spread in new ways, most recently via the audible medium of the Complete Liberty Podcast.

Wes Bertrand, the author of the books Complete Liberty and the Psychology of Liberty, is the host and describes the podcast as a "show that promotes total respect for self-ownership, property rights, and personal choice--amidst the authoritarian/obedience-oriented political and psychological memes in American culture (and elsewhere)."

In this week's episode, linked below, Wes spends the majority of the show sharing excerpts from my application. If you've been too busy to read my admittedly lengthy discourse on why I believe that war is immoral and how I came to hold this belief, you can now gain this understanding on-the-go by listening to the episode.

To be upfront, Wes doesn't begin talking about Guantanamo Bay until about 6 minutes into the show, and then after another 3 minutes or so he introduces my conscientious objection and continues on this topic for another 25 minutes. Overall, I highly recommend the entirety of the show as both insightful and entertaining, so please understand that I offer these time-specific designations merely as a convenience for those intending only to listen and catch-up on that which they haven't had the time to read.

Many thanks to Wes for his high quality and accurate presentation of my beliefs, and as always, please let me know any thoughts or ideas that you have in response to anything I've presented or referenced. I realize I still have some issues outstanding that I said I would address, but after yesterday's post, I need to take a break from more rigorous writing.

Complete Liberty Podcast - Episode 69 is available for download in two ways.

1. Free from the iTunes Store

2. By right-clicking and saving the following link directly as an mp3

Day 12 - I've Been Linked

Yesterday's careful rereading of the MILPERSMAN 1900-020 caused me to question whether it would be a problem that my psychological evaluation is scheduled with a civilian clinical psychologist. The cause for my concern was the statement from the instruction prescribing that the chaplain and the mental health professional be "members of a regular or reserve component of any of the Armed Forces." Since my appointment is currently scheduled with a civilian, I spoke with someone from the legal office today to confirm that this would not pose a problem. The legal representative stated that since the clinical psychologist is employed by the Navy, all requirements are met.

In this same conversation, I also inquired as to the identity of the Investigating Officer, whose role I detailed in yesterday's post. I was informed that I would be told this person's identity only after the psychiatric evaluation, which will determine whether or not I'm suffering from any "psychiatric disorders which would warrant recommendation for appropriate administrative action." Unless there are any unexpected developments, it appears my request is in limbo until my mental health appointment next Thursday.

On a slightly different note, my website has apparently attracted the attention of at least one person whom I hadn't directly contacted about it. Check out this reference to my request at The Holy Cause: A Christian Perspective on Liberty. I think those of you with an evangelical background will find this article and the comments to be particularly interesting.