Conscientious Objector Group: Phone 'Ringing Off Hook' As Huge Mobilization Underway
by Tyler Durden
Monday, Mar 09, 2026 - 12:30 PM
An 80-year-old nonprofit that advises conscientious objectors says its phone is "ringing off the hook" as American service members who object to the US-and-Israel-initiated war on Iran are seeking guidance on how to avoid being a part of it. Ominously, the group's executive director says the breadth of force mobilization is much like the run-up to the ground invasion of Iraq.
"Phone has been ringing off the hook," wrote Center on Conscience & War executive director Mike Prysner on X. "A LOT more units have just been activated for deployment than the public knows about." Founded in 1940, the Center on Conscience and War provides guidance to military service members pursuing a conscientious objector (CO) status or a discharge. The group also opposes military conscription.
Service members: If you agree Trump’s war on Iran is wrong, you don’t have to participate. We can help you explore your options. Call 1-800-379-2679
In a post on the group's account, the Center said it received a call from someone who is on deployment orders and who "reports widespread opposition to Iran War within their unit...In particular, they conveyed disgust at the US massacre of the girls’ school as well as the attack on the Iranian frigate in international waters."
The US military is reportedly responsible for killing some 150 schoolgirls in Minab, Iran during the opening of the war. In another incident, a US Navy submarine torpedoed an Iranian ship that was departing a largely ceremonial naval event in India that involved 18 countries. Compounding the controversy over sinking a lightly-armed vessel 2,000 miles from the war theater, the Americans apparently left surviving sailors to drown in a violation of the Geneva Convention -- that is, a war crime. At least 87 died.
Under US military policy, CO status is defined as “a firm, fixed, and sincere objection to participation in war in any form or the bearing of arms, by reason of religious training and/or belief.” That would seemingly exclude service members who stand ready to defend America, but who view the war on Iran as an amoral enterprise being carried out solely to advance Israel's agenda in the region.
I just spoke with the mother of a service member in this unit. They were given one last call home before having to turn in their phones. He told his mom the were going “boots on the ground” tonight.
However, the group helps service members pursue other avenues for opting out of the latest US regime-change war in the Middle East. For example, in a Friday night post, the Center said service members who are in their first year in any branch "can *easily* get out just by reporting 'failure to adapt'...The evidence bar is low."
Prysner, who took on the executive director role on March 1, joined the US Army shortly before 9/11, and was part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After discharging, he became an activist against the war. He said what he's hearing from callers indicates a major mobilization on par with the final weeks before the catastrophic invasion of Iraq:
Replying to @MikePrysner
I was part of the buildup to invasion of Iraq. What I’ve heard today from troops & families is so reminiscent of Feb-Mar ‘03. Doesn’t prove the US is invading, but that they are definitely preparing to. Will they? Probably weighing many factors… and our resistance is one of them
Prysner also said the mother of a service member in a deployed unit relayed a disturbing account from her son: His commander attempted to build enthusiasm for the mission by saying it would bring about the second coming of Jesus Christ. That account parallels those publicized earlier this week by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. As described by ZeroHedge contributor blueapples, just a few days into the new war, MRFF had already received more than 100 complaints from troops in 40 units who said leaders were pushing theological rationalizations for war on Iran. One commander allegedly said Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
Some ZeroHedge readers may know Prysner as the filmmaker who has collaborated with journalist Abby Martin on the Empire Files, a series of documentaries and videos that include "Gaza Fights For Freedom," which profiled the 2018 Great March of Return, a protest that saw Palestinians who approached the Israeli border wall shot by IDF snipers -- with 62 slaughtered on a single day.
Prysner just became the Center's executive director on March 1 -- one day after Israel and the United States initiated an unprovoked war on Iran. "With the first US dead in another immoral war, more troops will be questioning their role," said Prysner at the time. "Our job is to find them, defend them, and help them come home."
