Army chaplain resigns, calling Obama’s drone program ‘unaccountable killing’ in public letter

This article was published in the New York Daily News, May 14, 2016

A Unitarian Universal reverend resigned from his post as an Army chaplain over his refusal to support Obama’s drone program and the military’s “extraconstitutional authority.”

Rev. Chris Antal, a pacifist who has long opposed American military intervention, resigned through an impassioned letter sent to the Commander-in-Chief.

“I resign because I refuse to support U.S. armed drone policy. The Executive Branch continues to claim the right to kill anyone, anywhere on earth, at any time, for secret reasons, based on secret evidence, in a secret process, undertaken by unidentified officials,” Antal wrote.

“I refuse to support this policy of unaccountable killing,” he said.

Antal, a native New Yorker who ministers at a Hudson Valley Universalist Congregation called Rock Tavern, ended fours years of service as a minister to the troops.

“I could have gone quietly, I realize that,” Antal told an Army Times reporteron Friday.

“But I decided to submit a resignation in protest because I want to use the opportunity to raise public awareness, to generate a public conversation, and to hold the administration accountable,” he said.

Antal has long been outspoken about his disapproval of U.S. military policy, and has exchanged public letters with the President in the past.

 

While stationed in Afghanistan, Antal delivered what his superiors later referred to as a “politically inflammatory” sermon during a 2012 Veteran’s Day service.

Antal decried American foreign policy in the sermon, saying it “made war entertainment” calling it a “carnival of death” and called drone strikes “extrajudicial assassinations, death by remote control.”

Military officials punished him for the controversial sermon by slapping him with a “do not promote” order and took him out of Afghanistan.

His resignation is still pending, according to what Capt. Eric Connor told the Army Times.

“We would hope that all of our talented soldiers would want to continue serving this great nation and not resign their commission, but if they choose to do so, all service members are encouraged to follow the proper procedures we have in place for such actions,” Connor said.

Antal plans to continue serving the troops as a part-time chaplain for the Veterans Affairs Department, according to the Army Times.