Ed. note: This article is the first in a series of three articles on efforts against the War on Terror from current and former soldiers in the US military.

Some 21-year-olds will be traveling to Europe this summer to explore the world after finishing college. Spec. Josh Stieber, 21, will be hiking across America for the next eight months because he won’t have to spend another 14 months fighting in Iraq.

Newly discharged from the Army, Stieber set out from Washington, D.C., Wednesday on a pilgrimage to discover America while seeking and sharing alternatives for a peaceful world. Stieber claimed opposition to the Iraq war based on his Christian faith. In April, he won his appeal and earned his status as a conscientious objector.

Veteran and war resister Josh Stieber, above, is on a journey he calls "The Contagious Love Experiment."

“Once I got out Iraq I got frustrated on a moral and a practical level by what I saw being done to the Iraqis,” said Stieber. “I thought the war was wrong and that we created more problems than we solved by fighting there.”

His cross-country hike, which he calls the Contagious Love Experiment, is inspired by his love of the writings of Mohandas Gandhi and Jack Kerouac. It will take him to speak and volunteer at 12 organizations whose peaceful, community-building ambitions align with his own. Stieber has read Kerouac’s “On the Road” three times and thinks travel is a good way to spread and gain wisdom.

“It’s a great chance to give back the money I was given to destroy my nation’s enemies and turn it around, investing it in building something,” said Stieber. “Gandhi said you need to change yourself before you can change the world, so that’s part of what this trip is about.”

Such views weren’t always in line with Stieber’s beliefs. Before he served three years of active duty he was a young Republican at a private Christian school in Germantown, MD, who staunchly supported the war.

“I thought military might was synonymous with God’s will,” said Stieber. “But even back in basic training I got an early shock by how they try to dehumanize the enemy. You’re taught to turn the other cheek and to love your neighbor, but then the Army puts you into this mindset for war.”

When he returned home in 2008 from a 14-month tour with the infantry, he made up his mind never to go back. He was about to return his Army wages in protest and opt for jail time rather than a return to combat when he found out about the appeal process for conscientious objectors.

“About three days before my unit had to report for duty I heard about the objector program from a soldier who had been through it and won a discharge,” said Stieber. “In the end I decided whatever problems I had with the system that I couldn’t criticize the military for not respecting beliefs if they actually offered options.”

A conscientious objector appeal based on ethics training and not political views can end in discharge or transfer to non-combat duty. Stieber’s case underwent a year of investigation before being approved, in part because of his religious schooling. Between 2001 and July 2007, only 325 Army soldiers filed for conscientious objector status. Only 189 of those applications were approved, according to Lt. Col George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

“The Army certainly accommodates genuine conscientious objectors, but it is important to remember that soldiers serve in an all-volunteer Army because they chose to,” said Wright in a written statement. “Claims based on conscientious objection growing out of experiences before entering military service, which did not become fixed until after the person’s entry into the service, will be considered.”

One veteran who respects Stieber’s defense of his beliefs is Spec. Bernard Edelman, 62, who served as a combat correspondent in Vietnam. Edelman opposed the Vietnam War before being drafted in 1971, but went anyway because of his sense of civic duty.

“I have great respect for those who said ‘I oppose the war because it’s wrong,’ and went to Canada, acting on their beliefs,” said Edelman. “I don’t like people who tried to get out of the service by pretending to be homosexual or by staying in college for eight years to keep a deferment.”

Edelman said conscientious objectors drafted during Vietnam were sometimes granted non-combat service or jailed, depending on state laws at the time.

“If through his experiences (Stieber) has come to the conclusion that war is not God’s way, then more power to him,” he said.

The power of Stieber’s faith kept him smiling as he slept in the woods and hiked through thunderstorms on his way to Baltimore on Thursday.

“I had to carry a 50-pound backpack in training and I like hiking, so I have some experience,” said Stieber. “I’ll have my bicycle by the time I get to Kansas, so I’ll moving faster by the time autumn comes. And I’ll be using CouchSurfing (www.couchsurfing.org) to stay at people’s houses, so I think I’ll have a roof over my head often enough.”

To follow Stieber’s journal entries as he backpacks across America, go to http://contagiousloveexperiment.wordpress.com.

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