by TChris

Camilo Mejia had enough of war. Tired of being used as bait to lure Iraqi fighters into the open, and uncomfortable with the efforts taken by the military to avoid civilian casualties, Mejia made a decision when he returned home on leave last fall. He wasn't going back.

Now, after five months in hiding, Mejia ... aims to become the first Iraq war veteran to publicly challenge the morality and conduct of the conflict. At a time when Americans increasingly hold grave concerns about the bloody war, Mejia intends to seek conscientious objector status to avoid a court-martial.

Soldiers aren't supposed to question orders, but Mejia knew he couldn't live with himself if he continued fighting a war he believed to be unjust. That realization was partially motivated by an order to shoot at Iraqi protestors who, in Mejia's judgment, were too far away to harm troops.

"It was the first time I had fired at a human being," Mejia recalled. "I guess you could say it was my initiation at killing a human being. ... It was part of a general feeling that we had no right to be there, and every killing, whether provoked or not provoked, was unjustified because we had no right to be there."

Although Mejia could face execution for deserting during time of war, his lawyer thinks that extreme outcome is unlikely. He's probably right, as about 600 other soldiers have gone AWOL during home leaves from Iraq, and an administration facing reelection might have a difficult time explaining why it would want to execute more American soldiers than have died in combat.

That doesn't mean that Mejia will be granted conscientious objector status or spared a court martial. A soldier recently convicted of deserting, Kenneth Carter, received a six-month sentence in a Fort Knox prison after his court martial.

Mejia's company commander complains that Mejia is nothing but a "mommy's boy." His view may parallel that of the military establishment. But not everyone agrees with that assessment.