A friend of mine emailed me this story from Kevin Sites. Kevin is balls out journalist, he travels all over the world to cover stories in war zone areas. His mission statement is so refreshing to read.
In this article Kevin talks to First Lt. Ehren Watada, about his refusing to deploy to Iraq. Interesting concept, you join the army after the 9/11 attacks get fed all the lies about why we need to invade Iraq and now your time has come to deploy and you refuse.
Once you join the military you can’t pick your battles, you have a chain of command to obey. On the flip side, that oath also demands you to protect the US Constitution from foreign and domestic enemies. Would his actions fall under him protecting the US Constitution?
Ehren faces a six year prison sentence for one count of “missing troop movement” and four counts of “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” He justifies his decision in the audio provided below.
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Kevin Sites Interviewing First Lt. Ehren Watada
This man is not a traitor, he is a hero to speak up against this illegal war. And his career will be ruined for this. I’m sure he understands exactly what he is doing and the ramifications that will take place. But it starts with one, then more will follow. This is a man with sound principles and I wish some of our leadership in this country would listen to the people and the troops. This war, just like every war is about poor people killing poorer people and the elite profiting from it. Is this how the New American way is seen around the world? Is this how we see it? Or are our TV sets blinding our eyes?
That brings me to this great extension for Firefox that I happened to stumble across, called Corporate Snitch. The idea of this extension is to reveal the practices of companies that profit from acts that you frown or smile upon, your choice.
Such as:
- Disinformation
- Negatively Impacting the Environment
- Offshoring
- Opposing Abortion
- Product Testing on Animals
- Receiving User Complaints
- Supporting Open Source Software
- Violating Labor and Employment Laws
- War Profiteering
Finally we have a snitch that will hopefully lead organizations in the right direction. Only problem I see with this is I now have no place to shop at.
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7 responses so far ↓
1 sean coon // Jan 18, 2007 at 3:17 am
great post, bro’. and you’re absolutely right — it does take one man’s courage to lead to two and so forth…
2 John McCarthy // Jan 18, 2007 at 10:52 am
The military judge has ruled that Ehren Watada cannot bring forth the argument that the war in Iraq is illegal in his defense even though he is charged with ‘conduct unbecoming” for speaking out about his reaction to the preemptive, aggressive war which is in violation of the Nuremberg Findings. In that matter we hanged the defendant’s after they were found guilty of the ultimate war crime, Aggressive War. The jury was quite clear in this matter: There is no excuse or justification for a preemptive attack on a sovereign nation that has not attacked the aggressor. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Therefore, the court must address the issue before Lt. Watada: As an officer in the US Army, when can he legally refuse an order which constitutes a war crime?
Lets take Curtis Lemay as an example: “If Japan had won WWII, I would have been tried as a war criminal for the fire bombing of Tokyo”.
At least he had the moral courage to say so. And Lt Watada is saying so “IN ADVANCE”.
vpocv@hotmail.com
3 Andy Coon // Jan 18, 2007 at 3:07 pm
This really pisses me off, the military is to be used as a last resort. These men and women risk their lives to protect this country and our government shows no respect to them at all by invading Iraq. Zero.
Interesting how Sadam was hung for killing 148 Shiites… How many have died since we “occupied” Iraq? No justification whatsoever.
4 Robin // Jan 18, 2007 at 11:10 pm
As someone who has worked as a volunteer organizer for the Watada campaign, I can 100% assure anyone who asks, Ehren Watada IS an officer and a gentleman, as well as an intellectual. The question/comment is asked constantly, “So, he’s a conscienteous objector?” No, Ehren is NOT a conscienteous objector. He first requested to be assigned elsewhere than Iraq. When he was denied, he submitted his resignation which was also denied. Ehren refused to deploy to Iraq for SOUND LEGAL reasons. It is our own government which embarked on an insane ILLEGAL war. This Tuesday, when the military judge ruled his defense inadmissable, it was an UNSOUND ruling. Because the military is charging him for his speech (conduct unbecoming) then Ehren has the LEGAL right to defend his speech. But this is the military, they are not bound by the same laws as us commoners are.
If anything is to be learned from this, it is to not enlist in the military in the first place. For high schoolers, I urge all to use the OPT OUT form which denies the military access to your records for recruitment purposes.
If Ehren does go to prison, all of us who are against the war because the war IS ILLEGAL have been imprisoned right along with him. It is up to us to clang our tin cups on the bars and shout out til we are finally freed. Supporting first lieutenant Ehran Watada is our moral imperative as a nation.
5 Jill Foster // Jan 21, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Well Andy you’ve got me thinking on Lt. Watada’s reasoning. After hearing his interview once, my response does not immediately applaud his stance. Do I think Iraq was a warranted invasion – no; nor do I believe our president has demonstrated moral, honest diplomacy. But what prevents me from fully embracing Watada’s refusal to serve is the precedence it will set for future, more ‘legal’ wars. What if future battalions comprised of would-be Watadas refused to serve? Where would the tenets of our Constitution be then? The level of chaos & collapsing chain of command would give us all pause. Lt. Watada serves his moral code well by not going and he deserves respect on that front. It must be lonely. Yet it seems naive of him to want to “let people know of this immoral war”. Aren’t all wars legal or not still immoral? He has chosen his perspective and I wish him well. Yet there are other soldiers – who have done the research and deduction that Watada has done; and they have chosen a different response toward service. Granted I debate this from the comfort of my home and not war fields in Iraqi provinces. But bottom line, if you sign-up in the military, it seems you sign up for the consequences that are beyond your control or preference. Otherwise you’d be signing up for a bake-off not the military.
6 Andy Coon // Jan 22, 2007 at 9:22 am
Jill good point. You’re right we have the comfort to debate this from our couches, but my ass is getting up and doing something about it now. I’ll be in DC this weekend pleading with many other citizens of this country to pull out our troops.
Watada’s decision on not going to Iraq is I’m sure on the lips and minds on many soldiers and officers, in which all of the above are honoring their word. Watada I guess couldn’t give orders to troops if he felt like they shouldn’t be there in the first place. He and many other soldiers are risking their lives, and for any soldier to lay down their life for their country it better be warranted and for him to say that it’s not… good for him.
He was feed the sugar just like many of us and we all swallowed it, the thing now is the sugar is wearing off and we are now crashing hardcore.
7 johnmccarthy // Feb 8, 2007 at 12:47 pm
All this anger directed at Lt. Watada is the direct result of the lies and propaganda force fed to the American people by the war criminals who used 911 as the New Pearl Harbor for justification for the preemptive attack on Afghanistan and Iraq which the FBI now tells us that bin Laden had NOTHING to do with and that al Queada was not connected to Saddam Hussein!
Now that those Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq have been suckered for the profits of Halliburton and RMK Construction the finger pointing and hate mongering towards Lt. Watada is backfiring on the consciousness of American’s who have digested the lies of the war criminals and their propaganda machine of our compliant media!
How about the 259,000 Americans on permanent disability for being poisoned with depleted uranium from the 1991 war? How many more will be in the same condition from the last four years?
The lies that led us to wage wars will come back to roost for the war crimes trials of Bush/Cheney et al, and there will be no mistrial there!
Just google my email address for further info.
John McCarthy
vpocv@hotmail.com
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