Posted on 06/06/2006 7:57:37 PM PDT by markomalley
SEATTLE (AP) -- An Army lieutenant in Washington state is expected to go public Wednesday with his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Attorney Eric Seitz tells Seattle's K-O-M-O Radio that Lieutenant Ehren Watada (wah-TAH'-dah) opposes the war and first asked to be re-assigned and also asked to be allowed to resign his commission.
Seitz says after both requests were denied, Watada told his superiors he wouldn't go to Iraq.
Two anti-war groups say the soldier will announce his refusal at a news conference in Tacoma.
A Fort Lewis spokeswoman had no comment.
I think he has every right to say what he wishes to say. I think his unit has every right to issue deployment orders. I think if he actually misses his unit's movement, then he has every right to a fair general court martial.
If it's true, and he refuses, he ought to be shot.
Well . . . how about a decade hard time in an Army stockade.
Harvard/Colombia/Brown/Princeton/Georgetown University will each pay him $50,000 (no exageration) to speak when he gets out of jail.
Book deals..... He's set for life now.
Unfortunately, they don't give officers wall-to-wall counseling.
Sure, give him a break. Then give him 50 years in the stockade. Or better yet, let some gold star mothers sit by his cell and read Ulysses to him.
A few years of hard labor at Levinworth is what's in store for this idiot.
Actually, he does not have the right to say whatever he wishes to say. The UCMJ is not as free speech oriented as the Constitution.
This is court martial and probably hard time in prison for a time before turning him loose with his life destroyed.
He's very young. It is astounding that he has not been well counseled. Generally Lieutenants can do no wrong because they are so young and when they make an error they are taken aside to be helped.
He has to have gone a very long distance in the wrong direction for it to reach this stage. Lts are always handled carefully because they are so young. This is as sad as ugly.
He doesn't have every right to go public, hold a press conference, and undermine his country. That kind of outrageously political behavior is not permitted to serving officers, and should be properly punished.
He can refuse to go. And be reduced in rank to Private, and serve 10 to 20 in Leavenworth. Nothing less.
Maybe there's a case to be made for "showing cowardice in the face of the enemy"... which changes things somewhat. But failing that, I'll settle for Leavenworth.
If he refuses to follow a lawful order to deploy, then he has a right to expect to be dismissed from the Army after a fairly lengthy confinement. It's the UCMJ way.
They could probably make a good Article 88 case out of this one.
You're absolutely right. I'm ex-Air Force and what this jerk is doing is beyond stupid. But that's what the leftists and the news media's saturation of negative news, seditious rantings and defense of the indefensible is attempting to foster. Constant negative saturation to scare these kids into doing things that are stupid and will ruin their lives. But, hey. They're all useful tools and will be used and discarded.
That's putting it mildly. "Not free speech oriented" indeed!
You sign away those rights when you join. I understood that when I joined as just a dumb airman. You'd think a highly educated officer would grasp such a simple fact.
I really wish they'd start making a public example out of these clowns. These cases always seem to fly under the radar.
Ugly and sad covers it. How could he think officers have the right to only serve where they choose?
Actually, enlisted soldiers are not as prohibited in their free-speech as the officers are. Article 88 specifically states "commissioned officers". Back during the Clinton years, when a General called Clinton a pot smoking draft dodger in a speech, he was forced to retire. We, as enlisted were not bound by the same Article 88 that ended this General's career.
Heck, i wouldn't put it past the leftists to send an operative to OCS just so he could refuse a movement order.
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