The
Clarion
Vaimntinm 'i V
Volume 73, Issue 17
SERVING THE BREVARD COLLEGE
COMMUNITY SINCE 1935
Feb^^
Conscientious objector Iraq vet speaks at Porter Center
Photo by Marc Newton
by Joseph Chilton
Editor in Chief
A standing room only crowd
gathered Monday evening in
the annex of the Porter Center
for a speech by Aidan Delgado,
a conscientious objector who
served as a prison guard during
the war in Iraq.
Delgado was the keynote
speaker for a LINC event, and
students as well as community
members filled the room to
listen to Delgado’s story and
to ask him questions about his
experiences in the military.
The event began with
Delgado asking the crowd
whether or not they would be
willing to kill ten people if they
were given the knowledge that
What's
Inside?
News 2
Election 2008 4
Opinion 5
Sports 6
Arts & Life 7
Celeb Gossip 10
Horoscope 11
Classifieds 12
one of the people was a terrorist
and the other nine were
iimocent civilians.
This rhetorical question
served as a segue into his
telling of his decision to join
the army while he was a
freshman in college, as well as
his subsequent decision to
abandon his weapons and
serve out his term of duty
unarmed.
Delgado served as a guard at
the infamous Abu Grahib
prison in Iraq. According to
Delgado, approximately three
months into his service in the
war, he began to witness
atrocities that upset his
conscience and contradicted
his principles as a practicing
Buddhist.
“It got to where
you can witness
something
horrible and have
it not even effect
you,” said
Delgado, referring
to the
dehumanizing
behavior aimed at
the prisoners at
Abu Grahib by the
United States
soldiers.
“1 began to think
about peace, love,
mercy, and justice.
1 wanted to
become an
embodiment of
these ideals as a
Buddhist.”
The process is
becoming a
Conscientious Objector took 18
months, and so Delgado was
forced to serve almost a year in
Iraq after he put down his
weapons. It was not until six
months after he returned from
Iraq that Delgado’s application
was finally approved.
After telling his story,
Delgado began to reflect on
what he had seen as a soldier
in Iraq. Delgado relayed the
information that while he
served at Abu Grahib, 70-90
percent of the prisoners were
arrested by mistake, yet were
still treated as violent criminals.
Delgado also painted several
gruesome scenes for the crowd
derived from his experiences as
a soldier
While Delgado was
undoubtedly against the war,
he still took great strides to
make sure that people
understand that the soldiers
serving in the war are good
people put into a problematic
situation.
“Very few of us, no matter
how patriotic, would be willing
to put a bullet into the heads of
women and children in order to
fight an abstract terrorist, but
that is exactly what we are
asking our soldiers to do,” said
Delgado.
The session concluded with
a lengthy question and answer
segment, in which Delgado
fielded queries about his
experiences from Brevard
College faculty and students,
as well as members of the
community.
Delgado told of the
disillusionment that
accompanied joining the army,
as well as the tender
relationships that he had with
the members of his company
after he became a conscientious
objector
Many of the Delgado’s
answers were attempts to give
insight into the mind of a
soldier, and several adressed
the dilemma presented by the
thin line between fighting
terrorism and creating terrorism
as a soldier
“The line between fighting
terrorism and being a terrorist
is razor thin,” said Delgado.
“As soon as you believe that
the other side is 100 percent
corrupt and evil, then you no
longer have to hold yourself to
any moral standards, and that
is when terrorism is created.”