Trial of US soldier who refused to go to Iraq opens Monday
First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first US army officer to publicly refuse orders to go to Iraq, will go on trial in a court martial Monday at Fort Lewis, Washington, according to his supporters.
Watada is being tried for his refusal in June 2006 to be deployed to Iraq on the grounds that he opposed the decision of President George W. Bush to launch the war.
He is being charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with expressing contempt toward Bush, of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and purposely missing his unit’s deployment when it departed for the Middle East on June 22, 2006.
The charges, which could earn him four years in a military prison, cite statements Watada made on June 6 defending his decision on the basis that Bush initiated an illegal and immoral war.
“In this case, the judge has already predetermined that he will not allow any evidence or witnesses to testify that the war is illegal or immoral. He has already predetermined that the order (to deploy) is lawful and, in a sense by charging me with missing movement, they are skirting the issue of the legality of the order.”
Maybe, but what happens if he’s found guilty and one day the war is found to have been illegal?
Which reminds me, we need to get to work on that border fence before we’re inundated with draft dodgers heading north to avoid the Iran war.
//Maybe, but what happens if he’s found guilty and one day the war is found to have been illegal?
Nothing happens, its not relevant.
If he didn’t want to follow orders, then he shouldn’t have joined the army.
All of which goes to show that if you’re going to have ANY moral concerns about wartime activities, it’s best to stay out of the military. The “illegal order” thing sounds very nice when you’re prosecuting the enemy for war crimes, but it’s very hard to get those inside to agree that their own orders are illegal. After all, we’re out to get the WMDs. Or out to drive an evil dictator from power. Or out to bring democracy to the middle east. Or out to keep the country from becoming a breeding ground for terrorists. Whatever.
Potential military activities, by the way: use of white phosphorus or napalm on civilians, torture, bombing children, summary execution, etc.
2. I have to agree with Tom. A soldier’s sole duty is to follow orders. He didn’t, so he should be punished. It might not be fair, but no one said military life should be fair.
One of the core arguments of prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials at the end of WWII was that individuals had to accept personal responsibility for their actions and that the excuse of “Just Following orders” was not good enough.
This guy has looked at his orders and decided he can’t follow them.
Here is a guy who is following his principles and prepared to accept the consequences of those actions, the easier course for him (& family) by far would have been to just go along.
The system is going to crush him and it that is shameful that this situation has arisen, were honourable men feel they cannot follow what they judge to be dishonourable orders.
This war has had a tremendous financial cost to America (and the UK), but hand in had with those costs is the squandering of Moral Capital and respect from both within and without.
As true as ever: Military justice is to Justice as Military music is to Music.
#2-the war was illegal the day it was started.
5. “One of the core arguments of prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials at the end of WWII was that individuals had to accept personal responsibility for their actions…”
Yep, military life is unfair.
“Here is a guy who is following his principles and prepared to accept the consequences of those actions…”
If he’s prepared to accept his punishment, I don’t see the problem.
#4
While I disagree that a soldier’s sole duty is to follow orders (WWII should have taught us that that should certainly not be the case), I do agree that he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on here. Orders to ship out to Iraq do not breach the Geneva convention (for example), but once he’s there and gets ordered to torture POWs he has every right to refuse to do that.
If he didn’t want to serve in Iraq, he shouldn’t have “volunteered” to join the military. Being drafted is one thing but this doesn’t fly in an all volunteer military. Now that this officer has received his free education from the military, he’s ready to bail. At a minimum make him pay back the full cost of his education and give him a one year tour to a military prison. Iraq will start looking pretty good to him after a few days at Leavenworth.
If, according to some of you, a soldier’s sole purpose is to obey orders, what of the soldiers who were ordered to torture prisoners in Abu Ghraib? This was an illegal order, and some of them were prosecuted for obeying it. What gives?
#8, I am not denying the realities of Lt Watada’s situation, or the necessity of military discipline. He is but a cog in a machine that will deal with him as it must.
But that machine is being used badly, for the wrong purpose, by a guy who since 2003 has been setting a new benchmark for failure in the history of American Presidents. In doing so he has bankrupted Americas Moral Authority.
I also wonder if Watada signed up to defend America? or did he join to fight a war founded on lies & fabricated evidence, for a regime that supports torture, imprisonment without trial and suppresses the freedoms it vows it must defend.
Lt Watada would not be in this situation if the whole genesis of this war were not morally vague, hidden between false & fabricated links between Al-Qaeda and Saddam, confused by inflated fears of non-existent and Weapons of Mass Destruction and above all a vast falsehood of spin as bush has repeatedly tried to make reality change to match his personal worldview through the mere force of words.
Watada said he would transfer to a unit in Afghanistan, IMHO there is a war that is not ethically ambiguous, Al-Qaeda, supported by the Taliban attacked the US they should be dealt with. Bush is failing to do that properly.
Or you could say that Afghanistan is an “Honest” war (if there can be such a thing) whilst Iraq just stinks.
– there is my problem.
That “war is illegal” crap didn’t work years ago… and it didn’t even work in the last election (the human element is what won it). Why do you guys still spout it?
He should be hanged. He betrayed the Army, his men and the United States. He had the privileges of an officer and turned his back on them. The military is a world unto itself and I don’t expect those of you who have never served to understand that the Uniformed Code of Military Justice works, works well and we don’t need civilians messing with it. #11 you call Abu Ghraib torture? Heck, there are people in Frisco who pay good money to have dirty panties put on their heads. How many prisoners did the United States behead? You can’t say that about our enemies, they are a bunch of murderers.
This guy shouldn’t have signed the contract if he felt this strongly. If it was too late and he already did, he should have applied for SPEC-OPS training and his chance of going to Afghanistan would have increased considerably. He certainly is in the minority in the military, and I’m sorry for the soldiers who sever under him, as this is not good for their morale.
#7 – This whole “the war is illegal” movement, than so was Clinton’s excursions into the former Yugoslavia. I for one sleep a little better knowing that old Slobodan Milošević and Saddam are sharing a room together in hell.
#12 – “Americas Moral Authority” What the hell does that mean?
#13. Because unlike some people, we still want “rule of law”, and think there would be less total human misery if we submitted to it.
US helps found the UN.
UN Charter says wars of aggression are illegal.
US signs UN Charter.
US asks UN for permission to invade Iraq.
UN does not grant permission.
US invades Iraq aggressively (i.e. not defensively)
How’s your “realism” working out for you, with respect to human misery? Pretty good?
Michael Hawthorne – Championing the Crazy since 2001
#16 The U.N. as it currently stands is a joke. Please, give me a break. If the U.N. was redone and deploys a system of qualified majority voting like the E.U. I would give it some respect.
#18 Give you a break? What, are you John Stossel? The US is still a signatory to the UN Charter, whether or not YOU LIKE the UN.
If aggressive war is “illegal” and soldiers are not allowed to engage in “illegal” war, then it doesn’t matter what you think of the laws… Ehren Watada is legally justified in refusing the order.
Ehren Watada can do whatever he wants to do and I understand his argument and his reason for not wanting to goto Iraq. Do you agree that Saddam’s incursions into Iran and Kuwait were illegal? If so than he should have been removed from power after either of those two illegal conflicts, but he was not. Instead the U.N. administered Oil For Food which did a fabulous job at propping up his regime, but did little for the average Iraqi.
Nice punt. It went about 25 or 30 yards with “Iran and Kuwait” but you got another 10 yards forward roll when you brought up Oil For Food.
#16 bquady – Have you forgotten that Gulf War 1 (completely sanctioned and approved by the UN) never ended? There was no ‘peace accord’. Saddam, as the loser, had to abide by the terms imposed upon him. He chose not to. Of course, the UN dropped the ball too.
Gulf War “2” was the resumption military activity.
One of the core arguments of prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials at the end of WWII was that individuals had to accept personal responsibility for their actions and that the excuse of “Just Following orders” was not good enough.
Please, not even close. This guy wasn’t asked to execute innocent civilians or starve and work them to death like the Nazi’s did. Don’t cheapen the atrocities committed in WWII by your idiotic comments.
He was a 1st Lt, so I assume he joined about 2 years ago, when the war was already raging. Where did he expect to be sent?
If indeed the war is illegal and immoral, then why did he join the army that is conducting it? Did anybody ,b.volunteer for service in Vietnam then become a conscientious objector before being sent?
#23 If you decide from a moral & ethical standpoint that a war is wrong and illegal I don’t see that you have a choice but to take a stand, then you can live with the consequenses of your actions.
The germans escalated their atrocoties, concentration camps started out as labour camps, not extermination camps, so at some point an individual could draw a line and say “I’m not doing that” (some germans did and you can bet they paid a price).
Watada has chosen to draw his line earlier than a lot of others. As I said before the US military has no choice but to punish him. but I contend that the US military is being used badly & unethicaly, by having to fight in Iraq. It is this poor use that is sending Watada to Jail or whatever.
The justifications for the war have proved false so the war is false is that so hard to understand?
Saddam wasn’t supporting the terrorists that casued 911
Saddam wasn’t about to WMD anybody
The distraction of Iraq has meant that Afganistan is a job half finished – and they are the bastards that caused all this crap. That really pisses me off – shitheads are getting away with it and America is making a complete fool of itself in Iraq half a continent away from where they should be.
The US has lst respect in the world when with the nuclear threat emerging from North Korea (maybe iran but I doubt it), it needs all the authority it can muster to give it the best options for dealing with those nutcases.
>He was a 1st Lt, so I assume he joined about 2 years ago, when the >war was already raging. Where did he expect to be sent?
>If indeed the war is illegal and immoral, then why did he join the army >that is conducting it? Did anybody ,b.volunteer for service in Vietnam >then become a conscientious objector before being sent?
Money “mostly” and patriotism? That is usually the way they get a person. During wartime it can be somewhat hard for young males to actually find employment. You throw 911 in and you have motivation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehren_Watada
This courageous man’s mother spoke at my church in Hawaii about 2 months ago. She stayed to answer questions and proved to be a very articulate and caring person. When asked if she supported and encouraged her son’s decision she said that he was brought up to think for himself and make his own decisions. She will stand behind him regardless of what his decision is.
When he signed the contract, he was convinced, like many others, of the truth of the administrations accusations about WMD, etc. It wasn’t till a couple years later that he became aware, like many others, that what they said was a lie designed to get us into a war for far different reasons than what we are being told. He also told the Army of his willingness to serve anywhere else but he felt that what was happening in Iraq was illegal by international law. However, the Army decided to make an example out of him, thus the charges.
The prosecutors at the Nuremburg trials sent German soldiers to the gallows for not refusing illegal orders.
The same people who sought revenge then, control the message today through control of the media.
The Nazis gained control of the German nation by using exactly the same methods that are being used against us today. Unless the American public wakes up to what’s happening, we too will become a fascist nation.
If Lt. Watada stays the course, he will one day be recognized, quite rightly, as an American hero.
#4, SN, Wrong.
A soldier’s first obligation is to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. He is sworn to NOT obey an order that would go against the Constitution or the United States. In his eyes, that is exactly what this order does.
#14, Your diatribe shows that Gulf War Syndrome does affect mental capabilities. ALL aspects of the military are under civilian review, like it or not. Torture is wrong on so many levels; there is and never can be any justification for it. And unfortunately, Americans in Iraq have not been above murdering Iraqi civilians either.
#22, The UN Mandate was to remove Iraq troops from Kuwait. Regime change was not part of it. Second, Bush had the UN Inspectors removed from Iraq so he could invade. Bush had promised Congress that he would negotiate with the UN and Iraq only a month earlier. The vote to authorise use of force is debatable whether it was intended as a vote to invade Iraq.
#23, gq, there you go again, being an idiot. #16, bquady makes a good argument why you are just plain wrong.
Mr Fusion, anything to disagree with me. Being ordered to kill and torture civilians is an illegal order as was the case with the Nazis. This is clearly what the court ment. Just because your commander orders you to do something doesn’t mean you do it when you know it illegal. Being deployed to Iraq, on the other hand, is not illegal and this asswipe of an officer has the obligation and duty to go where the military sends him.
If Lt. Watada stays the course, he will one day be recognized, quite rightly, as an American hero.
bw-don’t count on it unless you put him in the same catagory as Jane Fonda.
Watada should be sent to Afghanistan. I’m sure there he would meet many real patriots and warriors who should help him see the light.