Posted on 06/07/2006 5:22:55 PM PDT by Horatio Gates
UPDATED 3:58 P.M. A public appearance by an Army lieutenant who refuses to go fight in Iraq was postponed Wednesday after his commanders told him he couldn’t attend his press conference during duty hours. Lt. Ehren Watada’s supporters in the anti-war movement held their mid-day event at Associated Ministries in Tacoma anyway, and played a video recording of the 28-year-old Stryker soldier’s statement against the war.
They said he would appear at 6 p.m.
Watada says he won’t obey orders to deploy to Iraq with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which is leaving later this month for its second year-long assignment there.
In his statement, Watada said:
“It is my duty as a commissioned officer of the United States Army to speak out against grave injustices. My moral and legal obligation is to the Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders. I stand before you today because it is my job to serve and protect those soldiers, the American people, and innocent Iraqis with no voice.
“It is my conclusion as an officer of the Armed Forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law. Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an offficer of honor and integrity refuse that order.
“The war in Iraq violates our democratic system of checks and balances. It usurps international treaties and conventions that by virtue of the Constitution become American law. The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice, but a contradiction of the Army’s own Law of Land Warfare. My participation would make me party to war crimes.
“Normally, those in the military have allowed others to speak for them and act on their behalf. That time has come to an end. I have appealed to my commanders to see the larger issues of our actions. But justice has not been forthcoming. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.”
Watada faces potential court-martial or other disciplinary action if he follows through with his refusal to deploy.
Officials at Fort Lewis on Wednesday said they had no information about any potential legal action against the lieutenant.
Watada joined the Army in 2003 after graduating from Hawaii Pacific University. After attending Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served a year in Korea with an artillery battalion before arriving at Fort Lewis in 2005.
His supporters say he tried twice earlier this year to resign his commission but was denied. His lawyer said his three-year term of enlistment obligates him to remain in the Army until December.
Supporters say he is the first officer to refuse to deploy to the Iraq war.
An Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon said 10 other officers have refused deployment orders since Sept. 11, 2001, although she didn’t have additional information about those cases.
BS. You volunteered during war time and you are a now cancer to our fighting men. I hope Watada enjoys his time with his new code pink friends before he meets his friends at Leavenworth
WA ping
Enjoy prison.
The Hawaii State Senate tried to investigate him on accusations that he selectively enforced the law and engaged in bounty hunting. He is known for rendering fines, in a high profile way, for very minor infractions which could well be honest mistakes, at just the right time in an election. He is even quoted as saying that is a politician receives a fine there is a public perception that they did something illegal.
His father was also a member of the Peace Corps.
Lt. Watada is the son of a political operative with his own political ambitions. Ambition alone was not going to get him anywhere but this carefully crafted ploy will earn him a name in the Kerry mode. He joined the Army AFTER the occupation of Iraq, knowing full well that the occupation would last for years, and that in his given field he could well expect at least one set of orders to the area. His actions were deliberate and calculated. All Hail the new John Kerry.
It would be next to impossible to prove THAT in a Courts Martial. I hope the Army facilities this SOB's ambition, and gives him the maximum sentence possible on all counts. Nothing less then reduction in rank to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and ten years at hard labor (ten hours a day, seven days a week) and a dishonorable discharge! Of course, as soon as the next Democrat gets in the White House he will be released and receive a full pardon and restoration of his rights and benefits as a veteran.
His statement was right out of the Democrat talking points manual!
Sounds to me like this wet-behind-the-ears lieutenant is afraid to go into combat.
That occured to me too. Check out the pics at the link of his new friends
I believe the lowerthanwhaleshit scum sucker is on duty 24/7. What a frickin dirtbag.
Perhaps he will get worse than that... (via michellemalkin.com)
ART. 94. MUTINY OR SEDITION
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who--
(1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny;
(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition;
(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.
(b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court- martial may direct.
__________________________
Sounds to me like he is refusing, in concert with other people, obey orders or otherwise do his duty with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority. That would make him guilty of mutiny, which is punishable by death.
He betrays, too, the men he's supposed to lead.
The SOB thinks he is the Commander in Chief and the elected President of the US. What a delusional coward. He will soon find himself returned from his alternate universe to the harsh realities of life on earth and the shame and disdain about to descend upon him. Lt. Watada has brought shame upon himself, his family, his fellow soldiers and the United States Army. I cannot think of a worse fate awaiting him.
Physically remove him to Iraq when his unit goes. Keep him confined over there during all the endless preliminaries in his lawsuit, then bring him home in order to try him and let the chips fall where they may.
How in the heck can you go through OCS, Gunnery School and then join a Stryker brigade and NOT think that all that training would be used for anything less than blowing sh*t out of things and people on behalf of your country.
Not to mention, he signed up after Sept 11.
Book 'em, Dano.
Article 88—Contempt Toward Officials.
and
Article 134—Disloyal Statements.
I hope the scumbag keeps opening his mouth...the JAG/Offs are going to be fighting to get his case.
I don't know the legalities of an officer resigning their commission but I would think when he enlisted there was a contract and it sounds like he has not fulfilled it.
If true he should be brought before a Courts Marshal and if convicted given a maximum sentence. He should be made an example of.
j
Isn't this desertion? Can't he be shot?
Well, let's see how the military court system feels about that. My guess is that they have a different perception of the legalities of this war than the young lieutenant.
What I don't understand is why somebody with his convictions would join the Army in the first place.
I suppose there are really stupid people out there but this guy had an agenda when he took the oath...imho
While it's great red meat, what Malkin isn't pointing out is the key words, "in concert with". You cannot mutiny by yourself, it must actively involve two or more people.
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