Yesterday I heard a war veteran, and now anti-war activist, tell his story. Posted to Iraq, Camilo Mejia’s first assignment was in a POW camp where he was required to inflict tortuous practices - sleep, light and space deprivation - on prisoners of war, with the aim of ‘softening’ them for interrogation.

Mejia became increasingly anxious about this, if for no other reason than what his three year old daughter back home would think about him when she was old enough to understand. He wanted her to know he was doing this against his will. He even had a friend take a photo of him holding a banner with the words: GIVE PEACE A CHANCE.

But he felt helpless to do anything to change his situation. Eventually he started to pray. His prayers were, as he describes them, “selfish, small-minded prayers” because they only centered around his daughter, asking that she would not think badly of him. Then, once he started praying regularly, he decided to include his mother in his prayers, that she would not worry for him.

Gradually he expanded his prayers to include his wider family. Then he decided he should include all American families who have sons or daughters at war. Then something shifted.

The act of prayer - the conscious communion with Spirit, or his HIgher Self

  • slowly opened his heart and he started to feel the pain of all involved in the conflict. He began praying for the Iraqi families whose sons and daughters were caught up in the war. Before he knew it he was praying for the Iraqi soldiers themselves.

Ultimately he was court-martialed for desertion. He chose to serve a nine month prison sentence rather than to return to another tour of duty in Iraq. In his words, he ‘lay down his weapons to reclaim his humanity.”

He now spends his time writing and speaking against the war.

Eileen McBride
Eileen McBride is the author of Love Equals Power 2, a spiritual seeker and teacher. This article was published on March 23, 2011.