A non-profit, Center on Conscience & War, on Monday quoted family members of service members and soldiers admitting that President Donald Trump's war on Iran ‘could have been prevented’. Its executive director tweeted about ‘phones ringing off the hook’. This comes as Trump warned that Washington is not ready to seek a deal with Tehran as Israel launched a new wave of strikes Sunday and Tehran's Revolutionary Guards threatened to hunt down and kill the Israeli leader.
Executive director Mike Prysner wrote about opposition to the war. “Phone has been ringing off the hook. A LOT more units have just been activated for deployment than the public knows about,” he posted on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
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‘Opposition to Iran war’
Center on Conscience & War reported that it spoke to the spouse of an infantryman in the 31st MEU currently headed towards Iran. She, as per the organization, said that her husband wants ‘nothing to do with this war’.
“Some number of Marines in the unit, specifically rank E-3 to E-5, do not agree with the mission,” the non-profit further tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}“Some number of Marines in the unit, specifically rank E-3 to E-5, do not agree with the mission,” the non-profit further tweeted.
{{/usCountry}}“She reported that decline of confidence in the Department of War began with the Venezuela operation and intensified with the Minab school massacre…” another tweet on the same chain read.
The non-profit furtheradded that ‘Marines didn’t have time to talk options with our org as they were already deployed to Philippines and redirected from there’.
“Families were notified by command. The only communication allowed was a single email thru a supervisors acct for vetting. Described as a “last message” home.”
‘War hungry’
The spouse further told Center on Conscience & War that ‘at least one high-ranking officer in the unit is “war hungry” making repeated comments about this being a Holy War for Armageddon, causing some Marines & families to believe they have “no regard for safety” of his men or legality of orders’.
CCW describes itself as a non-profit organization that ‘advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war’.
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The group said that it received hundreds of calls on its hotline, with most service members and families saying that the school bombing ‘was the catalyst that turned them against the war and the military as a whole’.
Iran has said the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School killed 168 children. If US fault is confirmed, it would rank among the worst incidents of civilian deaths in decades of US military strikes in the Middle East.
Are US soldiers refusing to be deployed?
While Center on Conscience & War reported extensively about soldiers and their families' opposition to war, it no where stated that service members have declined to be deployed.
No official comments have been made in the matter yet.