Free Republic

Nine veterans groups in California are criticizing 1st Lt. Ehren Watada for his decision to disobey deployment orders to Iraq. Watada is trying to "make himself a martyr and a hero," said Robert M. Wada, a charter president of the Japanese American Korean War Veterans. He said Watada's actions disrespect a legacy of military service by Japanese-American soldiers dating back to World War II. "No Japanese-Americans did anything like that and that is why Japanese-Americans are so upset," Wada said. "He is doing something that has never been done by Japanese-Americans." The groups expressed their outrage at Watada in a...

An Army officer who was born and raised in Honolulu is refusing to go with his unit to Iraq because he says the basis of the war is illegal and immoral. 27-year-old First Lieutenant Ehren Watada is with the Stryker unit out of Fort Lewis, Washington. Watada is the son of former state Campaign Spending Commission executive director Bob Watada. "I feel that we have been lied to and betrayed by this administration," Watada said Tuesday in a telephone interview with the Seattle Times from Fort Lewis. "It is the duty, the obligation of every soldier, and specifically the officers,...