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April 7, 2005

Jeremy Schwab

Carl Webb, a Texas Army National Guard deserter, visited the Hub last week to protest the prospect of a future military draft alongside over a dozen anti-war demonstrators who marched and chanted outside the Armed Forces Career Center at 141 Tremont Street.

Last July, Webb could hardly wait to finish his three-year stint in the Texas Army National Guard. After serving 14 years in the military, seven on active duty, Webb was beyond fed up with armed service; he had become a fervent anti-war activist.

So when he was called up to serve in Iraq just one month before his tour of duty was scheduled to end, Webb decided to desert.

“I got a call from my sergeant,” Webb told the Banner last week. “She said, ‘I have bad news; you’re going to Iraq.’ My reaction was shock and disbelief. I said, ‘Has the unit been called up?’ She said, ‘No, only you.’”

Webb had fallen victim to the army’s stop-loss policy, which extends guard members’ contracts beyond their scheduled completion date in order to meet the need for more boots on the ground in Iraq.

“A lot of people suggested I go,” said Webb. “I’m not a combatant, just a medic. But I object to any service in the military. Combatant or not, you are complicit in the slaughter.”

Desertion did not stop Webb’s anti-war activities. He maintains a web log, carlwebb.net, that tells his story and lists a slew of engagements to speak against the war — nearly one engagement a day between March 23 and March 30.

Last week, Webb and the other demonstrators at the protest organized by the Troops Out Now Coalition marched and chanted outside the Armed Forces Career Center to demand that there be no draft, that military recruiters and JROTC stop recruiting in schools and that U.S. troops leave Iraq. No arrests were made, and the group did not seek to enter the recruiting center.

Participants included members of the Troops Out Now Coalition, the group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together, students from Somerville High School and Webb.

“Our schools have a responsibility to educate their students about the reality behind military recruiters’ lies and about the upcoming draft,” said FIST organizer Stephanie Nichols. “Young people need real education and job training, not war.”

That same day, the Selective Service System reported that it met its 2004 performance plan, which focused on preparations to implement a draft among other objectives. The performance plan called for a new push to ensure that men ages 18 to 25 have registered, including training volunteer registrars to work on high school and college campuses.

Protest organizers took the preparations as an indication that the Bush administration is considering a draft. When asked in an October 9 debate with Democratic challenger John Kerry whether he would re-institute a draft, President George W. Bush said he would not.

“We’re not going to have a draft so long as I’m president,” said Bush. “The all-volunteer army works.”
Webb’s opposition to the United States’ involvement in Iraq began as early as 1999, when he protested the U.S. embargo and bombing of Iraq with the group Austin Against the War.

“Most people look at it as two wars, the Gulf War and the recent invasion, but I consider it one continuous war,” he said. “We were bombing them continuously, and an embargo on necessities such as food and water is an act of war.”

Webb says his political convictions made him balk at joining the military originally, but he needed the money.

“Me being politically aware, I sold out some of my ideals,” he said. “But I dropped out of high school and couldn’t find a job. I said, ‘I might as well do something.’ I never considered myself a lifer. I just considered it a job.”

Eventually, Webb expects to serve time in prison for desertion.

“I decided I wasn’t going to leave the country,” he said. “I would just run and refuse to go. I would eventually turn myself in or get caught and go to jail.”

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