For lawyer, helping GIs walk away is life's mission

[babylonsister]

For lawyer, helping GIs walk away is life's mission

By James B. Meadow / Rocky Mountain News


In a stark, geometrically precise courtroom that is all about sharp angles, fluorescent lighting, narrow windows and a pervasive mechanical hum, the roundish crusader with the crop of curly brown hair and wrinkled khakis, sport coat and tie is turning on his laptop, preparing to do whatever he can to shrink the Army and end war.

Soon, his client, a U.S. soldier named David Penta is brought in, shackled hand and foot, ready to be court-martialed for "desertion with the intent to shirk hazardous duty," ready to see how many months the Army will punish him. He is not fighting the charge. Actually, he's embracing it.

Pfc. Penta has seen too much horror in Iraq, too many corpses. The violence has unhinged him, led him to hide in closets when fireworks go off. Led him to the numbing comfort of marijuana. Led him to utter dark threats at officers - and himself. He is done with killing, done with war, done with the military.

Depending on whom you believe, Penta is not alone. The recent case of Boulder Marine Lance Cpl. Lance Hering, focused the local spotlight on desertions, but Hering was hardly the first young man to do so. Since 2004, the Iraq War has occasioned a slow but steady increase in military desertions.

The Army calls desertions a "minor problem."

James Branum calls desertions a "pretty common phenomenon."

Branum is a lawyer. He is a minister. He is a pacifist. He is in the courtroom to help Penta, just as he has helped 200 other soldiers because of one reason.

"I want to end war and this is the way to do it. Fewer soldiers mean fewer deaths. You can't fight a war without soldiers," he said, his Oklahoma drawl syrupy enough to pour over pancakes.

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