Service members are trying to find ways out early after anger over Iran war: ‘It’s been a mess’

U.S. service members are increasingly looking for ways to leave the military early rather than participate in President Donald Trump’s Iran war, a report has alleged.Almost 3,600 people, including at least 1,665 civilians, have been killed so far by the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Tehran that began on February 28, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.Many soldiers have taken to calling the 24-hour GI Rights Hotline run by the nonprofit Center on Conscience and War to express their concerns and frustration, NPR reports.Counseling director, Bill Galvin, told NPR he has noticed a sharp uptick in calls over the past month. Serving members of the U.S. military are increasingly anxious about the Iran war and many are seeking means of ducking out early, rather than fight in a conflict they do not believe in, says the the Center on Conscience and War (Reuters)The bombing of a girls' school on the first day of the war, which left 165 civilians dead, many of them children, was frequently mentioned by Galvin’s anonymous callers, he said. “It comes up almost always. It’s like, ‘I can’t be a part of something that's doing that.’”“It has been a mess, and many individuals feel frustration throughout the ranks,” Galvin added.An anonymous member of the Ohio Air National Guard told NPR he had been particularly incensed by the death of three members of his old base in a refueling plane accident over Iraq last month that claimed six lives. “I think it was the most angry I've ever felt in my life,” he said. “In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to just leave and wash my hands of that place and just be done.”According to the broadcaster, a number of other commonly cited issues raised by callers predate the Iran war, including Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to cities, deadly attacks on alleged drug trafficking boats, U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s anti-woke purges.Rescue workers search through the rubble in the aftermath of the airstrike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, an incident regularly mentioned on calls to the GI Rights Hotline (Mehr News Agency/AP)As a result of the discontent, some are choosing to retire early or opt out of reenlisting when their contracts are up, NPR says, while others are applying for medical separation or are simply breaking their contracts with little regard for the consequences.Still others are seeking advice about becoming conscientious objectors, a point of inquiry that has spiked 1,000 percent since the start of the war, the CCW says. Applying to become a recognized objector to a war on moral grounds is a protracted process that requires a written statement, a psychological evaluation, an interview with a military chaplain and an investigating officer assigned to each case, but entering the process is enough for an active-duty recruit to be removed duties to which they object with immediate effect.“We’ve had a lot of calls from people who don’t identify as nonviolent or pacifists,” said Steve Woolford, who also helps run the GI hotline. “They identify as everyday service members who are willing to defend the country but feel very unsettled and suspicious about the ways the military is being used now.To date, 13 U.S. service members have been killed in the war with Iran (AFP/Getty)“People are very, very confused. The suspicion or distrust of the government seems to be much higher right now.”Mike Prysner, the CCW’s director, said: “When Iran hit, I think it was kind of like a detonator for all of those things that had been building.Like Galvin, he noted that the line had received calls from people of all ranks: “People with really accomplished careers, people in very elite jobs, people who are in Special Forces, people who are Top Gun fighter pilots, physicians, surgeons... Our highest-ranking CO client right now is a major in the military.”Speaking previously to The Virginian-Pilot, Prysner said: “I haven’t heard from a single caller who said, ‘I’m scared of dying in a war I don’t believe in. All of them are scared of killing people in a war they don’t believe in.”For its part, the Pentagon has denied having any problem retaining troops, pointing out that the U.S. military has 1.3 million people enlisted and has ridden out a post-pandemic recruitment slump, with the Army, Navy and Air Force all meeting their targets in 2024.“There are zero retention concerns for Fiscal Year 2026,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson. “Every service is meeting its targets, and any suggestion otherwise is completely false.“Leadership matters and men and women are excited to serve under the strong leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth.”White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “President Trump has restored readiness, lethality and a focus on warfighters at the Department of War.”