Yolanda Huet-Vaughn - Gale

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Yolanda Huet-Vaughn Questioning the War in Iraq Tim Predmore was on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division near Mosul, Iraq, during the war in Iraq that began in March 2003. In May of that year, President George W. Bush announced that major combat operations had ended. The speech was delivered beneath a sign that read ‘‘Mission Accomplished.’’ In August of 2003, American troops continued to face hostile fire. Predmore felt compelled to write a letter to his hometown newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star, to question the ongoing war and why it was started. On August 24, 2003, the newspaper printed Predmore’s piece under the title ‘‘Death Here without Reason or Justification.’’ The essay was reprinted in the Los Angeles Times on September 17, 2003, and on many Web sites. The letter inspired many activists’ antiwar sentiments and protests. Predmore soon received an honorable discharge from the military and returned home. In his letter, Predmore observed: ‘‘This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination but a crusade to control another nation’s natural resources. At least for us here, oil seems to be the reason for our presence.’’ He added: ‘‘There is only onetruth,anditisthatAmericansaredying.... How many more must die?’’ Kuwait live in cities). Planned bombing raids that kill civilians are a crime under the Nuremberg Charter. Therefore, argued Huet- Vaughn’s supporters, her refusal to serve was covered by Principle IV, which reads: ‘‘The fact that a person acted pursuant to order [under orders] of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.’’ ‘‘Statement Refusing to Serve in the 1991 Gulf War’’ I, Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, M.D., am a board-certified family physician, a wife, a mother of three children ages two, five, and eight. I am also a member since 1980 of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. In 1982 I cofounded the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. I am from Kansas City, Kansas. I am a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps. In connection with the Gulf crisis I was called to active duty service in December 1990. 228 American Social Reform Movements: Primary Sources
I am refusing orders to be an accomplice in what I consider an immoral, inhumane, and unconstitutional act, namely an offensive military mobilization in the Middle East. My oath as a citizen-soldier to defend the Constitution, my oath as a physician to preserve life and prevent disease, and my responsibility as a human being to the preservation of this planet, would be violated if I cooperate with Operation Desert Shield. I had hoped that we as a people had learned the lessons of Vietnam [1954–75]—50,000 Americans dead—hundreds of thousands of civilian dead—and environmental disaster. What we face in the Middle East is death and destruction on a grander scale. Whereas in Vietnam we had 200 Yolanda Huet-Vaughn An antiwar protester dresses up like Uncle Sam during a demonstration in Washington, D.C., in 1991. The activists are urging the government to end what they consider to be an unjust war. AP IMAGES. Accomplice: An active participant in illegal activity. Military mobilization: Gathering of troops and military equipment. American Social Reform Movements: Primary Sources 229
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Yolanda Huet-Vaughn - Gale

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