If you’re in the United States Armed Forces, the time to seek Conscientious Objector status to the “Iran War” is now. Do not delay. Do not overthink it. Do not give in to excuses. Do not engage in wishful thinking. Do not succumb to pressure. Get out now. If ever you’ve sought to show valor on the battlefield, here is your chance. You’re on the battlefield. It’s called life. You have only one weapon at your disposal. It’s called integrity. Use either one to preserve the other, and flee this war as fast as you fucking can.

It’s becoming obvious that the invasion of Iran is on. It’s also obvious that it’s a suicide mission to gratify the ego of the greatest sociopath to have occupied the American presidency. You do not want to be a part of this ill-conceived shit show, but you also don’t want to wait until the last minute to disobey orders. Call your unit chaplain, your legal assistance office or equivalent (i.e., military lawyer), and your immediate commander in that order (commander last). Do not skip the legal assistance. Tell them you want to file conscientious objector proceedings, and that you need a point of contact for filing a CO packet. Do not take half-measures: request full discharge. You are not requesting a change of assignment. You are objecting to participation in this war in any form. Follow through and get out.

It’s sad that we civilians haven’t done our part in pushing the military more thoroughly out of civilian life. We’ve tolerated military recruiters in our towns and schools, defense contractors in our office parks, ROTC and JROTC in institutions of learning, military guest speakers at school events, military co-sponsors of academic events, war criminals in public life, and military propaganda wherever we turn. None of us have mapped out a strategy for pushing this shit out of our lives as successfully as it’s been thrown in our faces. We’ve watched it happen as though under a spell, and now threaten to drown in it.

But that’s a discussion and a round of self-flagellation for another day. Right now, we face an immediate exigency. The Iran War threatens to swallow us alive. If after Trump’s “bomb them to the Stone Age speech” yesterday you haven’t grasped that the nightmare scenario is here, arguing with you is secondary to convincing the half-convinced to take action. The nightmare scenario really is here. The only people who can mitigate the damage are the people nearest the front lines. We obviously can’t wait for an anti-war movement to form. Nor can we wait for things to “cool off” or “die down.” Waiting isn’t going to cut it at this point. We’ve run out of time. We’re literally at do or die.

Even if the options you face are imprisonment vs. dying for Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump, the choice should be obvious. Better to spend time in the brig than end your life at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. There is “some kinda way out of here,” to paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, but the responsibility for taking it is yours. The more you wait, the harder it becomes. Take it before the window closes. The hour’s getting late.