Staff Sergeant Camilo Meja became the new face of the antiwar movement when he applied for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector.

After serving in the army for nearly nine years, he was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight, citing moral concerns about the war and the US occupation. His principled stand helped rally the growing opposition and embolden other soldiers.

Meja was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. Here Meja tells his own story, from his upbringing in Central America to his service in Iraq-where he witnessed prisoner abuse-to his struggle today to end the occupation there.

In this stirring book, he argues passionately for the end to an unjust war. As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes, "The issues [Meja] has raised deserve a close reading by the nation as a whole. . . . He has made a contribution to the truth about Iraq."

Includes a new afterword by the author.

Camilo Mejagrew up in Nicaragua and Costa Rica before moving to the United States in 1994. He joined the military at age nineteen, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army for three years before transferring to the Florida National Guard. He fought in Iraq for five months. He lives in Miami.

Having fought in Iraq, Camilo Mejia became convinced of the immorality and illegality of the war and, upon being called back to service, became the first US soldier to publicly refuse to fight and has since become a leading figure with the Iraq Veterans Against the War movement. In this memoir he recounts his experiences in Iraq, his decision not to return, and his trial and conviction for desertion by a military court. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Camilo Meja grew up in Nicaragua and Costa Rica before moving to the United States in 1994. He joined the military at age nineteen, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army for three years before transferring to the Florida National Guard. He fought in Iraq for five months. He currently lives in Miami.