http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html
April 3, 2003
War stories
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
It's hard to image a couple of stories more different than those involving 19-year-old Pte. 1st Class Jessica Lynch and 20-year-old Marine reservist Lance-Cpl. Stephen Funk.
Around the time multi-wounded Jessica was being rescued by army Rangers and navy SEALS from an Iraqi hospital where she was a prisoner of war, after being "missing in action for nine days," Stephen Funk was waging his own war against the military.
The rescue of Jessica was one of those magical efforts that must make every soldier on the Iraq battlefield feel good, not to mention people at home who witnessed the rescue thanks to night vision cameras. A diversionary attack was underway on the other side of town.
It was pure Hollywood. Top marks to the military for acting quickly, decisively, effectively when an Iraqi passed a note to a Marine that a woman soldier was being held in the hospital, room so-and-so.
The rescue did more for morale on the home and war front than any victory in the field. The war is now is at the outskirts of Baghdad, as Republican Guard troops are getting smashed.
The moment of truth is near: Will Saddam Hussein (assuming he's still alive) use bio-chemical weapons on the Americans and his own people?
HEROIC ACTS
Rescuers' heroic acts are what we expect of soldiers -- especially these guys in Iraq, who seem superior people of character. They're a world apart from the GIs in Vietnam, where leadership and morale were a problem.
But it's Stephen Funk who is puzzling. In February 2002, five months after the attack on the World Trade Center, he joined the Marine reserve. He took his training, was qualified as a marksman, but when his unit was activated to prepare for Iraq, he went on "unauthorized absence," (UA) a lesser offence than deserting.
About the time Jessica was being rescued, Stephen was turning himself in to the Marines, claiming he was a "conscientious objector." Apparently he joined the Marines without realizing that on occasion Marines shoot at people, even kill them, and sometimes get killed themselves.
"They (the Marines) don't really advertise that they kill people," Funk was quoted as saying. He also said he's attended every peace and anti-war rally in the San Francisco area.
He thinks he's the one with courage for standing up to the military. "It's scary to confront the military," he told the Associated Press, "because the military teaches you to submit to orders. I may not be a hero, but I know it takes courage to disobey."
ANTI-WAR HERO
Funk is an instant hero to the anti-war-for-any-reason gang, and as a conscientious objector is almost unique in the Marine Corps. In World War I, Sgt. Alvin York started out as a conscientious objector and won the Congressional Medal of Honour for killing and capturing some 130 Germans. Lance-corporal Funk is no Sgt. York.
Funk tells how horrifying it was in training how he had to yell "Kill! Kill!" in bayonet drill, and was scolded if he didn't yell loud enough. Recruits tended to hurt each other in hand-to-hand combat.
He says he tried to argue with instructors that "killing people is wrong," and that "war is about destruction and death," but they didn't get it.
He said he's always felt this way, and when he joined the Marines (because he was depressed at the time), his mother didn't think it would work out. Mom was so right!
Meanwhile the war now moves to Baghdad; Jessica will come home to a hero's welcome; Stephen Funk will be a poster boy for peaceniks, but it's unlikely he'll be a Marine for much longer.
Letters to the editor should be sent to
editor@sunpub.com.
"US Army Snipers- One shot, one kill"
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