The federal government, Pentagon, taxpayers and anyone receiving or being denied a ROTC scholarship should sue the pants off Stephanie Atkinson.

And Atkinson, 23, should be rotting in some God-forsaken dungeon serving as a poor excuse for a prison cell while waiting for trial.

She is being careful not to break the law because her crime of shirking her responsibilities is embedded in stupidity.

Atkinson needed money for college while finishing her English degree. The Reserve Officer’s Training Corps seemed like a good idea.

She joined. She received the scholarship. She went through the training. She received the money.

The government received her commitment she would serve. She signed the dotted line. An official contract. Her word.

But when her number was called, she didn’t go. Good ‘ole Steph stuck her nose up in the air and said to hell with everyone.

It seems that Atkinson, in all of her infinite wisdom and foresight, is AWOL. The Army gave her the money and training she wanted in 1984 while at SIU in Carbondale.

But two weeks ago when Uncle Sam told her it was her turn to go to the Persian Gulf and sort mail, she declined.

“My conscious is my guide, and it says not to take part in what Bush is planning,” the adorable, bubbly blonde said.

She’s afraid that some of the 129 members of her unit, the 300th Adjutant General Postal Company from Fairfield, ILL,. will die.

She claims to be the first female conscientious objector in the Gulf stand-off, and says the mobilization is all about oil.

And she might be right on both accounts. But her brain should be over-riding her conscious because she is wrong.

She isn’t shy at all about saying she enlisted purely for money and job training skills.

She gladly took the government’s money. She readily took the training. She deceivingly made a commitment. And then she openly reneged.

Excuse me, but when you sign a contract, you’re giving your word. Period. Case closed.

It didn’t say anything about agreeing with why the U.S. is digging fox-holes in some desert. Her input wasn’t sought.

And any nimrod defending Atkinson because they don’t like the reasons why the troops are over in some Sheikdom building sand castles is equally pathetic.

This isn’t about disgreeing with the “why’s.” This is about doing what someone agreed to do.

She sure didn’t balk at the money all of the taxpayers were forking over. She openly admits she joined to sponge her way through college.

But Atkinson says she earned her money. She did her job. “I sweated as much as the rest of the troops,” she said.

That’s bunk. She didn’t do half as much as the rest. The others went. She didn’t. It’s repulsive she even has the gall to put herself in the same breath as the other members of her unit.

A six-gallons-of-water toast to Miss Objector. Somebody ought to dump it on her head.