For those of you expecting a diary with pretty pics of candles or flowers or pics of clean shaven pretty Americans or swarthy, de-constructed Iraqis killed because of this illegal war, I'm sorry. I don't have those.
But I don't need to.
The fact is, you know that this war is the problem.
The WAR is illegal.
Our participation in the war is the moral problem.
Our continued funding of military bombings, of ammunition for troops who kill our name and with our money (or rather, China's money), is the problem.
Saturday night I went to a house party for a book, For Love of a Soldier: Interviews with Military Families Taking Action Against the Iraq War, a quintessential Cambridge event. The author, Jane Collins, was there to talk a little about the book and sell copies to friends and friends of friends. The publisher, Rowan and Littlefield, is an academic publisher with zero budget to promote this project so the author has to do all the work herself.
The book consists of interviews with the wives, husbands, mothers, and fathers of soldiers who have served in the Iraq War. They include Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson, the founders of Military Families Speak Out, and Bob Watada, the father of Lt. Ehren Watada who refused a posting to Iraq and was court-martialed for it, as well as the family of Tomas Young, the subject of Phil Donahue's recent documentary, "Body of War."
For Love of a Soldier by Jane Collins
Landon, MD: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, 2008
ISBN-13:978-07391-2372-0
1Lt Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse a deployment to Iraq won major victory in Court Thursday. In what his backers call a "huge victory," US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled the military cannot put Lt Watada on trial a second time unless it can prove such a trial would not violate the US Constitution’s prohibition against "double jeopardy."
In his first court martial, which ended in a mistrial, Watada said:
"To me," leading soldiers into battle in Iraq "means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal."
Most of you are aware of this case so I'm avoiding redundancy laying out context. Lt. Watada is the first commisioned officer who refused deployment based on his belief that the war in Irag is illegal.
The Army is intent on locking up one of it's best and brightest. Lt. Watada, who spoke out against the War in Iraq calling it illegal, something I concur with completely. Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the U.N. Charter would know that the Iraq war IS ILLEGAL. An naked act of aggressive war. He disobeyed his orders to deploy to Iraq. Watada was willing to serve in Afghanistan, but that option fell on deaf ears at Fort Lewis and the Pentagon.
Today's Seattle P.I. ran this editorial opposed to the Army's 2nd attempt to lock up Lt. Watada
Watada Court-Martial: Let him go
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
The twists and turns of the court-martial proceedings against Fort Lewis 1st Lt. Ehren Watada continue to cause pain and division.
Watada came to an easily debated but apparently sincere decision that the Iraq war was wrong, even illegal. He had one mistrial, and his attorneys are trying to block a second proceeding as violating rules against double jeopardy. But the court-martial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
However the defense appeals turn out, we think there is a case for letting Watada leave the Army without further ado...
On one day this month, judges in two federal courts proved that there is still life in the federal judiciary after seven years of Bush/Cheney court packing.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle has issued a stay and ruled that First Lt. Ehren Watada's claim of double-jeopardy is not frivolous.
The court-martial was scheduled to start Tuesday. Lt. Watada is an Iraq war objector based at Fort Lewis. His his first court-martial resulted in a mistrial in February.
I watched most of Live Earth a week or so ago and found it to be pretty insipid and uninspiring. The only performer who took full advantage of the situation was Melissa Etheridge. From the very first moment she stepped on stage you could see the determination in her eyes.
She stood there and looked out over the crowd. She took a moment to center herself. You could see it happen. She launched into a new song, "Imagine That," which described Cindy Sheehan in the first verse and Ehren Watada in the second.
Then she asked, "America, what happened to us?" and called on the best of our history, leading from climate change to impeachment and a plea for all of us to say, finally, "Enough."
NBC didn't broadcast her performance in prime time.
It shouldn't be allowed to fall down the memory hole.
I just happened to read a couple of weeks ago Charlie Brown's (recently unsuccessful democratic candidate for California's 4th district House seat) blog about his son returning to Iraq for a fourth tour of duty. I added a comment to Mr Brown's blog saying that I thought his son should not go back and "Just say no" to that next tour of duty. I meant it. I despise this war and the people who caused it. I despise the sanctimonious and posturing little bastard Bush. But he's too stupid to have done this. It's the other cryto-nazi motherfuckers like Cheney, Pearle and Wolfowitz who deserve to rot in hell for at least two eternities for what they have done. At the very least they deserve a cell in The Hague for the rest of their miserable lives. I was a bit surprised by the few comments to my post but then most of the time I feel like I am from Mars and that I don't belong on this planet. So I decided I'd write this explaination of my position. I think anyone in the Guard or regular army, marines or air force should refuse to serve any longer in Iraq. Pretty simple. Just say no.
So you thought you understood why a mistrial was declared by Lt. Col. John Head on February 7, 2007? Prof. Francis Boyle reveals the hidden story of why the court martial was aborted just before Lt. Watada would have taken the stand.
Of course, the government couldn't let Watada speak. Confirm your own suspicions or trade them for new ones. Read Prof. Boyle's explanation of what happened.
...Some Americans will proudly and faithfully proclaim that the United States is a nation of laws, of conscience and also of a divinely granted manifest destiny. At times, in my politically pessimist days, I grow afraid that it may not be just some but most Americans that feel that way. It's then when my faith in democracy is shaken a bit and I have to dig deep in search of greater strength...
Attorneys from both sides are nonplussed at the surprise declaration of a mistrial in the court-martial of Lieut. Ehren Watada. Prosecutors scrambled to explain it as resulting from procedural dilemmas while the defense, describing the case as a "hopeless mess" is already on record as saying a second trial would be met with a motion for dismissal based on double jeopardy.
Hear their responses, along with others, in this video report from Mike Barber at truthout.org.:
Eric Seitz (defense atty): "The judge [Lieut. Col. John Head] acted on his own and for his own reasons and I frankly don't understand, anymore than the government counsel does, what his thinking was or what his legal basis was because I don't believe there was any."
Nevertheless, Seitz considers the end result to be a great victory for his client. And the ramifications could be much larger than Lieut. Watada's indvidual innocence, as was his intention all along.
Army Lieut. Ehren Watada, based at Fort Lewis, just south of Seattle, said he refused to go to war with his unit last June because he had come to the conclusion thatthe war in Iraq is illegal. In conversations with his superiors, in media interview and at the court-martial this week he contended that his Army oath required him not to follow what he called an "illegal order" to deploy.
I absolutely love his defense. When I was in the military, one of the things drummed into us, this was in the days when the army was still coming to terms with what happened at places like Mai Lai, was that you had to follow orders unless they were illegal. You were OBLIGATED to refuse to agree to follow illegal orders. Period. No exceptions. If the best information you had was that an order was illegal, you are required to ignore it.
Military judge Lt. Col. John Head declared a mistrial Wednesday because he felt Lt. Ehren Watada did not understand a document he had signed in which he admitted that he had a duty to go to Iraq with his fellow soldiers. Watada has testified that he only intended to admit that he would not go to Iraq, not that he had a duty to do so. This strikes to the core of the Watada defense, the defense that judge Head has illegaly denied the Lt.
Judge Head, in an evident attempt to aid and abet war crimes, has ruled that Watada cannot argue that the war is illegal. Watada's defense is that he is duty bound NOT to go to Iraq. Therefore, to admit he has a duty TO go to Iraq would contradict his own defense. So when Watada testified today that he did NOT understand he was admitting to a duty to go to Iraq, the entire can of worms the judge had tried to avoid ran headlong into the prosecutions case. Call Watada on it and the Lt. STILL gets to strike to the heart of the entire case: It is BY LAW a soldiers legal DUTY to refuse to obey an illegal order including participating in an illegal war.
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform
--Theodore White
Here's what one person had to say about 1st Lt. Ehren Watada:
<blockqquote>
He's a coward, and he's betting that he'll get off or get a reduced sentence because of public support; apparently he's never heard of military bearing or honor, because almost assuredly he will be found guilty of failing to deploy and conduct unbecoming an officer. The legality of the war is not in question: no one has ever found the war, or prosecuted the war, as an illegal act and it is not his call to decide whether he will deploy.
Hope he gets some soap on a rope, because prison for him is going to very, very difficult.
Personally, I have some mixed feelings about this whole thing, but I’d like to see how others feel about it here. I spent 4 years in the US Army and figure I did my duty.
We were trained to obey our orders pretty much without question. This is necessary to maintain discipline, which in a military force is essential.
FORT LEWIS, Wash. - The judge overseeing the court-martial of an Army lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq declared a mistrial Wednesday, saying the soldier did not fully understand a document he signed admitting to elements of the charges.
The judge overseeing the court martial of an Army lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq declared a mistrial Wednesday, saying the soldier did not fully understand a document he signed admitting to elements of the charges.
First Lt. Ehren Watada was fighting charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and missing movement for refusing to leave last June with his unit, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Follow this story with news from around the globe at: Watada.
