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OF SUPPORT FOR MALCOLM KENDALL - SMITH Please note: The comments on this page reflect the views of their authors. All messages will be passed on to Malcolm's solicitors. If you would like to contact Malcolm you can write to him via his solicitors: Flt Lt Kendall-Smith, c/o Mr Justin Hugheston-Roberts, Rose Williams and Partners, Waterloo House, 4 Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, WV1 4BL, England. Malcolm is beig held at HMP Chelmsford, click here for more info I hope you are well considering the circumstances. I hope that you are safe and healthy and that people are treating you respectfully. I am not surprised it happened to you, considering the state of international affairs; they made a scapegoat out of you. Now others are warned not to follow your footsteps. However, considering history and considering this court was set in the United Kingdom, I am at a loss this happened to someone who intelligently considered the legality of this war and decided to act against it. Human beings' need to increase their self esteem and put their group's interest before everyone else has been a problem for centuries. I hope, for now, by teaching students about group behaviour, ethnocentrism, and cultural values affecting our justice perception they will learn to be critical and fair. Like yourself. I am hoping that we will find the courage to use our knowledge and skills as social psychologists to educate the larger general public about 'group think', 'ingroup vs. outgroup differentiation', and 'social identity theory' so that your history won't repeat itself. With much respect, I wish you light, love and much much strength. Dr. Nathalie van Meurs I greatly admire your actions, Flight Lieutenant Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith. I wish you well, and hope that the support you are receiving will help you during a difficult time and result in your release from prison. I am Australian by naturalisation, British by birth, and am deeply ashamed of both governments for joining in the invasion of Iraq. Congratulations to Malcolm Kendall-Smith on his stand against the war crimes this country has committed in Iraq: invading a non-threatening country, overthrowing the state, killing thousands of civilians, triggering a civil war and allowing the resurgence of religious fundamentalism. His conviction was predictable (although morally wrong), but the sentence and costs are outrageous -- it looks like an act of spite. The air force was lucky to have someone like Malcolm Kendall-Smith and should have valued him. At least he has nothing to be ashamed of, unlike those in power who caused this disaster. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, Katherine Gunn, Mordechai Vanunu, Daniel Ellsberg, Elizabeth Wilmshurst... These are our heroes. They saw wrongdoing and had the courage to tell the world at great loss to themselves. All support to them. " Many would be cowards if they had courage enough" Thomas Fuller, 1732 Dear Dr Kendall-Smith There are many types of courage and many types of "hero". Usually the adjective, hero, is corrupted and used to mean anything that catches the attention of the mass media. However, for me, the most honourable, pained and courageous man, is the man who stands up alone and isolated from the rest of his community, and tells them that they are wrong, by following the baying masses they are wrong. By his action, the man who stands tall in the face of such condemnation by his society is a real hero. I truly believe you are such a man, a genuine hero, a man of conscience. I have been following your story closely and hope that you appeal this case until finally a court of law recognises the justice of your case. With all good wishes. We have contributed to the legal costs fund. It seems far too little, and we only hope that there were more that we might do. If the fund is exceeded by contributions, we would like our own contribution to go towards a fund for the use of Mr Kendall Smith and his family, with no questions asked. Would that there were more men as brave as him. The Iraq war might never have taken place. Peter and Mary Biddulph A message of support for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith At the last meeting of Nottingham Stop the War Coalition on 19.04.06 it was unanimously decided to send a message of full and total support to you for your courageous stance in refusing to serve in the illegal war taking place in Iraq. We wish you all the very best. Sari Vajanski on behalf of Nottingham Stop the War. Good on you. At the end of the day, making a stand for your principles, is just and to be commended. It is easy to follow orders and harder to stand up for your beliefs. Be aware that I and others support you and hope that in the end peace will prevail. All the best. This quote from Mark Twain was written with reference to Charlie Sheen's questioning of the government's line on 9/11: " In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." I used to think that we are living in an age of cowards. People like Charlie Sheen and Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith have forced me to reconsider that opinion. Steve O'Neal US Army Veteran Brussels Be strong Malcolm, you have a social and moral conscience unlike the warmongers who went to war based on lies and half-truths. I have a cousin in the RAF, who has reservations about this war - if only more people acted like you, this relentless drive to war on third world nations would have been stopped in it's tracks.... Solidarity. Phil Brand Vice-Chair South-West London Branch Communist Party of Britain. This is my first time contacting you, can you pass this information to Kendall-Smith please? My father was a fighter pilot in WW11. Around 1943 or 1944 'Bomber' Harris took the decision to bomb JULICH and CLEVES. The fighter pilots, who often had better knowledge from low level flying, disputed the orders on the grounds that both towns had numbers of refugees and, secondly, if they were bombed they would actually form an obstacle to any invading forces from Britain. However, the order came and they went but, what is important is that the fighter pilots wrote a 'round robin' letter directly to Churchill. It was the first time RAF officers had disputed an order. When the invasion started the pilots proved correct as roads, services, bridges and so on were smashed. However, what is of more significance is Dresden. By this time, my father told me, he thought Harris was nothing more than a war criminal. All the pilots knew that Dresden had no military sginifcance and they had seen the columns of refugees going there in the last stages of the war. When the order cam HE REFUSED TO GO!! He was threatened with court martial and that he would be stripped of his two medals DFC and bar. So many fighter pilots refused the order, the court martial was dropped. It is possible that Churchill by this time was distancing himself from Harris and that was why he failed to get any recognition at the end of the war. My father never wore his medals, never attended any military functions and always spoke for peace. He was 29 when the war started, he had taken flying lessons in the Air Cadets, so was one of the older pilots. So Kendall Smith was not the first pilot to make a stand on an order. Dear Reader, I pledge my support for Flight Lieutent Malcolm Kendell Smith, and will make a donation, as to the costs placed upon him at the trail. I have written to the Ministry of Defence, expressing my views as to extraordinary circumstances that surround this case and the so called "war on terror". I have done a fair amount of research into the general background that surrounds this case, balancing it against other cases. I wish him, his family, friends and all those supporting him at this difficult time best wishes. Yours respectfully, Malcolm Bush. I am just so glad, that it you have established this site! Thank you. Have been following this case with great interest. Kendall Smith deserves a medal, not imprisonment. I would do a lot to help him in any way I can. We need people like him. He should be in government, not Bush or Blair. Lara Pasfield I live in Melbourne Australia and am an Australian Citizen. I totally support the actions of Flight Lieutenant Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith in refusing to participate in the war in Iraq giving his reason that this is an illegal war. I admire his commitment to follow his own concience, reguardless of the concequences, in this grave matter. I believe the people who should be charged with war crimes are the war makers, US President G. Bush, UK Prime Minister T. Blair and AUS. Prime Minister J. Howard. They are the leaders who made this war on false premises and caused the death and suffering of so many thousands of inocent people they should now face the concequences of their actions. Kevin Vaughan A war is fought when a country is attacked by another. Invasion is disguised as liberation, with excuses used of bringing about 'democracy' removing a 'dictator' from the 'oppressed' by imperialist powers. As a citizen in Britain which has a long history of invasion, colonisation, imperialism I was dismayed when 'educated' Blair continued to follow Bush and attacked Iraq. What is imprisonment if one has principles, sadly lacking in our Prime Minister of today? You like Gandhi, Mandela and refusniks in Israel, have stuck to your conscience. Well done, Malcolm, 8 months will soon pass, we admire you! " All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke). Thank you for being one of those good men who stood up and made his voice heard. You speak for millions of others in this country in the stance you have taken against this senseless and illegal war. We are all horrified and angry at the unjust sentence you have received for standing up for what you believe is right. Stay strong and stick to what you believe is the right thing to do. I sincerely hope the sentence will be successfully appealed. Making such a principled stand is admirable in itself and also, hopefully, will by its example help others to find the courage to make their own stand against this illegal, shameful war in which so many,whether Britsh, American, Iraqis suffer and die. Hilda Meers At a time when it felt shameful to be British, it is good to see the likes of Kendall-Smith doing the right thing. I hope he remains brave and committed to what his conscience tells him rather than what an immoral leadership tells him. I hope that military training has provided him with the mental means to stay the course despite the authorities' persecution of someone who had the nerve to point out that certain actions are wrong for all involved. We must all fight for justice in this country and spread the word of truth about the BOGUS "war" in Iraq and "war on terrorism". I salute you Malcolm Kendall-Smith. Here's some of what I've written to Dr Kendall-Smith at Chelmsford: Dear brave and admirable colleague, I salute and support your moral courage for the stand you have taken... Your integrity stands in shining contrast to the shabby duplicities of our politicians and I know that you will be vindicated. With best wishes Dr Brian Robinson Even though I'm not in regular employment I have sent a donation
to support Flt Lt Kendall-Smith, as he must not feel he is doing
this alone. Please thank him for the courage and deliberation he
has shown in taking on this corrupt government. May he find peace
and justice for what he is doing. |
| HELP
PAY MALCOLM'S COURT COSTS Malcolm has been ordered to pay £20,000 costs. MFAW has set up a special fund to help cover this. You can donate by clicking the button below Malcolm Kendall-Smith page Messages of support 1 Messages of support 2 |