Pablo Paredes

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Pablo Paredes (b. 1981, The Bronx, New York) is a conscientious objector sailor who refused to board the USS Bonhomme Richard as it deployed to the Persian Gulf in December 2004 as part of the US occupation of Iraq.

"I am convinced that the current war in Iraq is illegal. I am also convinced that the true causality for it lacked any high ground in the topography of morality. I read extensively on the arguments and results of Nazi German soldiers, as well as imperial Japanese soldiers, in the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, respectively. In all I read I came to an overwhelming conclusion supported by countless examples that any soldier who knowingly participates in an illegal war can find no haven in the fact that they were following orders, in the eyes of international law." [excerpt of Paredes' statement at court martial]

Paredes was convicted only of missing movement; sentence was demotion, two months restriction to base, and three months "hard labour" (apparently merely extra duty concurrent with the restriction).