Local soldier who refused redeployment speaks in Auburn
Brittany Whitley | Opelika-Auburn News
Matthis Chiroux, pictured here Sunday outside the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, says he will continue his fight to be heard.
Staff Writer
Published: July 5, 2009
Matthis Chiroux, the Auburn native who refused redeployment to Iraq last year citing moral objections, took the podium at Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday morning to speak about his trials and tribulations during his service and since he refused redeployment.
Chiroux said he refused deployment to Iraq because he believes it is an illegal occupation and that the Army fosters a culture of abuse and torture.
Now, after obtaining a general discharge, Chiroux is still speaking out against the Iraq War.
He told the congregation Sunday there’s “a Fourth Reich movement right here on our shining society on the hill.”
Before receiving redeployment papers, Chiroux served for four years as an Army journalist in Japan, Germany, the Philippines and Afghanistan. He said his job was to disseminate propaganda.
“I did very high-level propaganda,” he said. “We were targeting members of Congress … The military is maybe one of the greatest public relations hoaxes ever in this country.”
On Sunday morning, Chiroux admitted to mistakes in the past, including run-ins with the law as a juvenile. He said those run-ins landed him in court and, subsequently, in the Army. Once in the Army, he said he was taught how to punch someone in a way that it would kill that person and how to stab someone to do the same.
“I was taught how to kill people like everyone else,” he said. He said racism and sexism were encouraged.
Chiroux said the Army told him, “These aren’t people. They’re Haji. Hajis killing and mutilating your buddies.”
He said the Army used religious fears against detainees in interrogations.
Chiroux also said that while deployed, he and other Army members solicited prostitutes in the Philippines and Japan.
In June 2008, Chiroux did not show up for redeployment.
“They never came for me,” he said.
He received a letter giving him two options — a dishonorable discharge or a hearing to defend himself against the dishonorable discharge.
“I went to this hearing. I sat before this board and I defended myself,” he said.
Chiroux said he told the board that he was not a coward. He said he told them that the Iraq War was a criminal occupation. He said soldiers in Iraq were being forced to commit war crimes.
He received an honorable discharge.
“I haven’t so much as lost my G.I. Bill,” he said. Chiroux still receives G.I. benefits, including funds to attend college.
The Auburn native said he would continue to fight until the “criminal occupation” is concluded.
“I never stopped standing and I never stopped fighting,” he said. “The struggle will be eternal, but I have a fighting chance now. It’s on our children’s backs that these occupations will be waged. I consider the truth to be divine and consider human life to be the same.”
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Reader Reactions
to marty morgan:
am no coward. i am not using rights that i refuse to fight for. you seem to imply that someone IS fighting (in iraq) for my right to free speech or my rights in general… you’re sadly mistaken.
the war in iraq is war for profit. war for oil. a war entered on the basis of LIES.
YOU make me wanna puke.
to hbd1932:
hey… moron… here are a few sites i found via google -
https://www.cia.gov/
http://www.asp.bnl.gov/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/157318.php
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
http://www.ap.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/senate-panel-to-investiga_n_187796.html
so you’re saying you can’t possibly receive any legitimate information via google? you’re an idiot.
i wasn’t referring anyone to google as the source, but as a means to a source.
to 1293: (and the rest of you sheeple)
not sure if you think that i and matthis are one in the same, that definately is not the case. i would’ve taken jail over “service”.
also once again NO ONE IN IRAQ IS FIGHTING FOR MY RIGHTS OR MATTHIS’ OR ANY OF YOURS. OUR rights dont have anything to do with it.
WAKE UP
I am a veteran of the Iraq war and I am going to return shortly for another deployment. It just makes me sick to my stomach that this boy could use the screen name of wake up when he is completely asleep to what made this country what it is. Here we have a coward that says he was protesting the war by not going, but wants everyone to wake up and take a stand. Do you even listen to yourself. You make no sense. You signed up. What did you think the army was going to teach you, too tickle the enemy to laugh themselves to death. I lost a friend in Iraq and it makes me sick that the only hint of courage that you can show is by talking about a war that you have no personal experience in. I was there and 90% of the Iraqies wanted us there. No matter why we went ther we did and the mission is almost complete and to all the veterans out there that see this lost soul feel free to let him know how you feel. The men and women fighting for his right to be stupid and lost deserve that at least.
I am amused at how many “experts” & “know it alls” that have been created since Google came along. By God if you “Google it”, then it must be true. LOL!...“9/11 was George Bush’s fault…if you don’t believe me, just “Google it”! HaHa, I think I will laugh myself to sleep 
WAKE UP, quit GooGooling, and get a job. “Just Google it,“ too funny.
If this poster, wake_up_sleeper, is the coward, then in this post under me really bothers me. Isn’t it ironic that he starts his post off with, It is of no concern of yours if I comment, as I am FREE to post whatever I want and whenever I want. It seems to me that he is using rights that he refuses to fight for or support. This whole deal makes me want to puke.
Please come back share some thoughts AFTER your ‘first tour in Iraq’. Thank you.
to Kaboy09: change of heart?
to americangenie:
whether i’ve done anything other than post comments is no concern of yours. i’m free to post whatever comments i choose where-ever i choose to.
you said “There is no doubt in any right thinking person’s mind that there is a global push for a one world government, but carrying on like lunatics is not going to gain converts from those who wish to continue living in the fog created by governments & the media”
well, there seems to be alot of doubt in the minds of people who consider themselves “right thinking”. i’m not carrying on like a lunatic. how would you have me carry on?
ultimately i don’t really care to “gain converts from those who wish to continue living in the fog created by governments & the media”.
i hope to gain converts from those who DO NOT wish to CONTINUE living in the fog created by governments and media.
the american people are under attack and are too caught up in michael jackson or the false right left paradigm that is the republican and democrats.
not much has changed from bush to obama. especially on foreign policy. that’s because they work for the same people. they’re puppets under the same hand.
wake up, there’s antiandrogens, fluoride(essentially rat poison), and other deadly chemicals and heavy metals in our water supply, antiandrogens is used in pesticides that is sprayed on our food.
“Antiandrogens are capable of preventing or inhibiting the biologic effects of androgens, male sex hormones, on normally responsive tissues in the body. Antiandrogens are given to transsexual men who want to become women and they are also given to sex offenders released from prison to reduce their sexual libido. These substances have the effect of counteracting masculinisation and effectively diminishing normal male biological characteristics associated with the release of testosterone.“
whether or not you believe anything i say you have to agree that:
the death of the drug addict and seriously mentally ill and self-mutilating pop music idol Michael Jackson “received more coverage than the Iraq War, 9/11 and the global financial meltdown, last year’s Beijing Olympics, Hurricane Katrina, the death of Pope John Paul II and the Tsunami,” according to the Global Language Monitor.
is disgusting!
the american people need to WAKE UP and start focusing more on the issues that really matter. the american people are the only hope for stopping/defeating the new world government that IS around the corner.
to JMHO: i don’t have to go to the doctor to get some prozac. all i have to do is go to my kitchen water faucet. there’s prozac in the water. google it.
2+2=4
i know this flys in the face of everything you know as truth and everything you hold dear, but it’s true.
it does not equal 5. no matter how many times time you say it does. IT DOESN’T!
WAKE UP, SLEEPERS!
To me this story has gone on way too long. We need to publish stories on soldiers who have deployed and not on the one who refuses to. There is nothing couragous about what this guy did. The fact remains that he signed up to do a job (to avoid jail) then avoided what he signed up for. He had no problem traveling abroad on those “cozy” assignments but when it came to combat…....... RUN FORREST RUN. I am a soldier looking at my first tour in Iraq. I don’t want somebody like this deploying with me. Let him stay at the house. Let him get the G.I. Bill and let him go out and give his speeches because that is the rights that soldiers protect. The very mission that he ran from. He knows that he failed his commitment and he will have to live with that. I mean this guy MIGHT would have a point if he deployed to Iraq and did not agree with the war. He NEVER deployed anywhere!
WAKE_UP_SLEEPER- Go to the doctor and get some PROZAC
Have you 2 done anything to try to effect the change back to our Constitutional Republic left to us by the Founders besides run from comments section to comments section raving like some kind of Chicken Littles?!!!!
There is no doubt in any right thinking person’s mind that there is a global push for a one world government, but carrying on like lunatics is not going to gain converts from those who wish to continue living in the fog created by governments & the media.
You are not helping any cause with your mindless ranting.
God bless America!
The NEW WORLD ORDER is here now.
OBAMANATION, the larger states voted
this nut case into office, now most of
them are looking for jobs.
Look out Alabama, they can move south
with ease, and work in car plants here.
Cannot get over people LOVING this
NUT CASE, M. Jackson and the like.
America has lost it. No longe the land
of the free, home of the brave.
NEW WORLD ORDER will take all we have.
911 = inside job
iraq war = oil
new world order is coming.
WAKE UP, SLEEPERS!
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