San Jose Marine Granted Conscientious Objector Status

  NOEL CISNEROS

Apr. 1 - KGO (KGO) -- A U.S. Marine from San Jose has been granted "conscientious objector" status by a federal court. The marine asked to be released from his duties because he has a moral objection to killing.

Lance Corporal Robert Zabala joined the Marines before the war and went to boot camp after the war had begun.

But he said it wasn't the Iraq war in itself that he objected to. Zabala said he had an ethical awakening after joining the Marines that would not allow him to kill other people in the pursuit of a military mission. Zabala was particularly appalled by boot camps' attempts to desensitize the recruits to violence.

Robert Zabala, Conscientious Objector: "The response that all of the recruits are supposed to say is 'kill.' In unison you have maybe 400 recruits chanting 'kill, kill, kill' and after a while that word almost becomes nothing to you. What does it mean? You say it so often that you really don't think of the consequences of what it means to say 'kill' over and over again as you're performing this deadly technique, a knife to the throat."

He petitioned the Marines for conscientious objector status discharge and was repeatedly evaluated as an appropriate candidate for it until his petition reached the commander of the Marine Corps, who refused to grant it.

Zabala petitioned in U.S. district court saying the military was holding him unlawfully. The U.S. district court for the Northern California district agreed and on Friday ordered the Marines to release Zabala from military duty.

There is no word yet on whether the Marines will appeal that decision. Zabala says he would go to jail rather than fight in the war and he will repay the Marines for the stipend he received in boot camp.

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