Posted on 01/18/2007 8:25:13 AM PST by RDTF
The nation's first Army officer to refuse deployment to Iraq urged the public in a statement Wednesday to "stop the war so that the death and sacrifices of American soldiers will not be in vain" after a major legal setback in his court-martial proceedings.
First Lt. Ehren Watada, who is based at Ft. Lewis near Seattle, faces six years in prison for failing to deploy to Iraq last year with his Stryker brigade and for criticizing President Bush and the war in statements to the media and at a peace convention.
The 28-year-old Honolulu native has argued that the war is illegal because Bush did not obtain proper authorization for it, and that Army rules and the Nuremberg principles adopted after World War II required Watada to disobey orders to participate.
On Tuesday, however, Lt. Col. John M. Head, the military judge in the case, rejected Watada's request to debate the legality of the war at his court-martial next month. Although Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, had sought to open the question so the soldier could explain why he defied his deployment orders, Head ruled that the war's legality was a political question irrelevant to the charges at hand.
Head also rejected motions to dismiss charges of "conduct unbecoming an officer" related to Watada's criticism of Bush and the war.
Seitz had argued that the 1st Amendment protected Watada's remarks. But Head disagreed in his written decision, saying that courts have ruled that soldiers do not enjoy the same degree of free-speech protections as civilians.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
LOL!
Someone give this Lt a grenade to throw. :>)
Tell us how you really feel! LOL!! (By the way, I agree with you.)
Heh, a REAL high school named Hudson High (Hudson, MA)
Bingo Mike- these pukes are all about themselves despite their claims to be 'for the soldiers'- He signed up to protect this coutnry and obey his commander in chief, and now that it's come down to putting his mouth where his money is, he wants out. Evidently his cowardice doesn't bother him in the leasst.
The following link does not relate to this thread http://sacredscoop.com
Roger that! Some people just don't know when to shut up. This statement to the press just about guarantees he will get the max upon conviction. When you are guilty and unrepentent, Judges don't have much sympathy.
it still is, for the most part. there's always the selective continuation process, though.
I say, take the coward up in a chopper to 5,000 or so, and push his cowardly ass out of it. See if his marxist friends on the ground can catch his sorry, worthless, commie ass.
I don't think it has changed since I retired in 1992, but, an E-5 normally cannot serve past either 12 or 14 years. It is make E-6 or be gone. E-6 can serve to 20. E-7 could serve to 22 years, E-8 to 24 years and E-9 to 27 years. Only E-9, Command Sergeants Major can serve past 30 years and that is only after they have been selected by the Department of the Army.
As for officers, Captains (0-3), Majors (0-4), Lieutenant Colonels (LTC) (0-5), records appear before a promotion board. If they are not selected the first "look", then they are called "passed over for promotion." If they are not selected the 2d look (normally the next year), and are passed over twice, then they are gone! Some LTCs get to stay longer. I have a friend who is a JAG LTC who is retiring shortly and he has about 27 years in the Army. So, he got to hang around longer. He has been passed over all these years to Colonel (0-6) BECAUSE of ONE officers efficiency report (OER) on which ONE officer whom he had butted heads with wrote something derogatory on his OER and that stuck to him like glue for the rest of his career. That happened to him way back in the late 1980s or early 1990s and hampered him the remainder of his career.
I had a major once who was passed over twice for LTC and got booted. He went to the board to check his records after the first pass over and the officer who reviewed his records with him could only find one item, on one OER, that was probably hurting him. That OER was THE VERY FIRST OER he got as a BRAND NEW 2d Lieutenant out of West Point, in his very first military assignment. It did not hurt him to make 1LT, Captain or Major, but for some reason when he was up for LTC, it killed him. So, he was gone. But, he did get a position as a civilian employee on Fort Campbell, KY and left the Army on a Friday, and came to work that next Monday as a civilian. Lucky him.
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