Mark Wilkerson: AWOL Soldier Refuses to Return to Iraq

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"I Am Not Willing To Kill Or Be Killed For Something I Don't Believe In" - AWOL Soldier Refuses to Return to Iraq

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144247

We hear from a soldier who is refusing to fight in Iraq. Mark Wilkerson has been AWOL for more than a year and is turning himself in at Fort Hood in Texas today. In a taped video statement he says, "I am not willing to kill or be killed for something I don't believe in. My morals said going to Iraq was not the right thing to do." I was not going to live a life of violence." We end today by hearing from a soldier who refuses to fight in Iraq. The Pentagon estimates that at least 8,000 members of the U.S military have gone AWOL since the start of the Iraq war. Democracy Now recently interviewed one of them - Sergeant Ricky Clousing who was AWOL for more than a year. We talked to him on the day he turned himself in at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

Today we bring you another soldier, Mark Wilkerson who also has been AWOL for more than a year. He is turning himself in at Fort Hood in Texas today. Mark taped this video statement on Tuesday.

* Mark Wilkerson, speaking from Camp Casey in Crawford Texas. Special thanks to Patrick Phillips of New Spark Media.