There are many more in the Army who have thoughts and feelings similiar to Ehrin Watada. They know that this war is wrong, but they keep their mouths shut. It takes a lot of nerve to do what he has done. The Army has a history of severely challenging and refusing CO applications. The Army is the most political organization I have ever been associated with and they come down hard on dissenters. Not only is it couragous to stand up, object, then stand your ground, but it is also patriotic. Three cheers to Lt. Watada for having the guts to do what many would like to.

Let's all strive to spread this story throughout the land. It is the most quintessentially correct account of this war and one man's relationship to it. Watada decided to follow the light of his conscience instead of being servile to the beast. His is a courageous stand, based on law and reason, and for that he has had to bear to weight of an obviously deviant and corrupt system.
So to you Lt. I say this - I will continue to hold you up as an example of courage and true patriotism to my 15 year-old son. We have followed your story since Seattle - yes, I was there - and you have been in our thoughts every day since.

Oh, excellent!

Watada's a real patriot and hero!

Thank you, Watada, and I hope many more soldiers will follow your example.

I add my congratulations and admiration to Lt Watada's long list. There are very few people with the courage and stamina to stand up against the military monolith. It is my pleasure to recognize this fine gentleman who takes is all "on the chin" and keeps on keeping on.

Lt. Watada should be honored for having shown all of our society that being a "good German" is not something that you have to do. You can stand up and say I refuse to continue. And you can explain why you think this way. There is nothing more American than that.
Good luck to Lt. Watada
Hoa binh

The guy who honors the UN Charter, the US Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rule of Nuremberg, all of which outlaw wars of aggression, gets prosecuted while those who scoff at the rule of law and murder 1.2 million get a free pass. America is the greatest country in the world. Sure.

I will know when our nation is on the right path when General Watada is the Secretary of Defense or when he is one of the Joint Chiefs.

Evidently the writers of the article were never in the military and do not understand that what Watada did was required by his officer's oath and obligations to the Army.

Let me add my voice of gratitude to those above. Everything that you are - your race, upbringing, parents, and particularly your intelligence, have come into play during your efforts to stand against an immoral war. The whole of our country owes you. By keeping true to yourself during this dark time, you provide all of us with inspiration and leadership. Would that we were all so young, so strong, and so intelligent. Thank you, thank you Lt. Watada. Please use your time to document your experiences - I'll be first in line to buy and would love to hear you speak during an a book tour.

Grats to Ehren! A true American Hero.

History will remember you.

Wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood didn't take up your story either.

John F Butterfield Would that all officers took that oath so seriously and held it in such high regard. Since it clearly is not so held by the vast majority of those who serve, we still see him as a real hero. Bless him and all like him with the courage to follow their conscience no matter what the consequences. He is the bravest of the brave, if you ask me.

May I encourage each of you to express your feelings about Ehren Watada being one of the bravest and heroic people of our time for taking a stand for peace and against the violence of this militaristic complex of government and industry to your representatives and any other "officials" you think need to hear this opinion. When we have a specific example of courage to present, it carries much more power than a general opinion with no factual support. I will do the same.

peace,
st john

Hero.

Lt. Watada - a man of courage and integrity. Best wishes to you and I hope to see you in a leadership position one day, for your have what true leadership should be.

Lieutenant Watada is a very courageous young man and I hope his nightmare is about to end.

The military puts conscientious men in a nearly impossible position. The only people that are allowed conscientious objector status are those who state they are against all wars. They say they cannot cherry pick wars.

The man of conscience, who takes his oath of service seriously is willing to fight and die in defense of his country, but he is not willing to fight or die in a war of aggression against a country that is no threat to us. That is in violation both of his oath and of the Nuremberg Principles.

The military says if you are willing to fight in any war, you must be willing to fight in every war we declare. You have no right to evaluate if it is a just or legal war.

America uber alles makes no more sense that Deutchland uber alles. Many Germans died or were imprisoned after the Nuremberg Tribunals because, "I was just following orders," was not deemed a legal defense against torture, genocide and other acts of inhuman brutality.

A conscientious human being is expected to evaluate his actions, and the actions of those around him. If those around him are acting in an illegal or immoral manner, it is his moral right and duty to protest and refuse to participate.

Lieutenant Watada has shown himself to be a moral and conscientious human being. More power to him!

Thanks to the judge who apparently still has some respect for the law and the constitution. I hope he doesn't get the same treatment as the Pakistani judges.

Hurray for Senator Watada, !!! a man of true conviction,,,,and unfortunatly RARE....this country was founded on protest, dissent and rebellion, let us continue this Divine Right,, amen

Let's wait for the appeal by the Pentagon before we celebrate.

The new fascist court may have input on this one.

Now that's an American Solider and leadership in the truest sense of the words who would not place his soldiers in harms way in an illegal war.

What a fabulous example Lt Watada is for all of our youth. It is so important to educate yourself and then stand up for what is right and true.We here in Washington State are proud to support this courageous man.

It is interesting that an army whose Commander in Chief dodged the draft for the Vietnam war, which he and his family supported, then deserted from the Air National Guard, should prosecute Lt. Watada. George W. Bush, because of family connections, faced zero jeopardy for his felonious cowardice. Watada refused to serve on principled grounds and is being hounded for it. This govenrment knows no shame and its hypocrisy knows no bounds.

I have been following the Watada deal for a little bit, (as I am sure many of you have been) and I am absolutely thrilled to hear the good news. Like others have said, it takes some serious courage to stand up to the war machine as a serviceman. In a time where victories for justice seem few, three cheers for good news. Keeps me sane.

Butterfield: the Military Field Manual also states that soldiers are not to engage in illegal acts under the Geneva Conventions. The Iraqi invasion and occupation is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, the principles of the United Nations, and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. The My Lai incident is an example of obeying the company commander when they should not have.

Marine Lt. Ehren Watada, has refused to follow orders to deploy to Iraq. Watada's claim is that as the Iraq War was instigated on false pretexts and thus it is clearly a violation of the Geneva Conventions. The Army's position is that Watada refused orders and that this behavior is criminal under the Army's legal system. The judge hearing the case refuses to allow the defense to even use Watada's reasons for refusing these illegal orders to be considered.

Why would a military judge refuse to allow an officer to make the case that in refusing an order the officer was following a higher law, which is itself recognized by the military? There is a reason. Watada's challenge is that the Iraq War is illegal. The judge cannot allow Watada to argue the war is illegal because as such it constitutes a war crime. If the war is acknowledged as illegal that means admitting that everyone who participates in it, plans it, or orders it is a war criminal. The real question is whether the American people will tolerate being lead by war criminals.

A military judge in Fort Lewis, Washington, has declared a mistrial in the court-martial of Lieut. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer prosecuted for refusing to go to Iraq. Prosecutors wanted the judge to find that Watada had agreed to pretrial stipulations that he had violated his duty when he refused to show up for movement to Iraq. But Watada made clear that he believed his duty, under his oath and military law, was to refuse to participate in an illegal war. Watada maintained that his refusal to participate in an illegal war in Iraq was justified, indeed required, under the Army's own Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The duty to refuse an illegal order, established at the Nuremberg Trials doesn't just include individual war crimes, it includes the greatest crime against the peace, which is, as they determined after Nuremberg, wars of aggression, wars that are not out of necessity but out of choice for profit or power or whatever.

We all have a responsibility, as determined after Nuremberg, whether you're the lowest soldier or the highest ranking general, or just a regular civilian, to resist and refuse to enable and condone the Iraqi war, a war of choice, an illegal war under the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution. We are going to have to ask ourselves what are we are willing to sacrifice of ourselves in order to correct the injustice and wrongs of this government in regard to the Iraq War?

The people running the Iraq war are eager to make an example of Ehren Watada. They've convened a kangaroo court-martial. But the man on trial is setting a profound example of conscience -- helping to undermine the war that the Pentagon's top officials are so eager to protect.

In direct resistance to the depravity of the Bush administration as it escalates this war, Lieutenant Watada is taking a clear and uplifting position. Citing international law and the U.S. Constitution, he points out that the Iraq war is "manifestly illegal." And he adds: "As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order. It is my duty not to follow unlawful orders and not to participate in things I find morally reprehensible." Watada says: "My participation would make me party to war crimes."

Soldiers are human, and at least some partially remain that way despite a very grueling stressful, risky occupation. Their motivations as they continue to serve, must be tempered by knowledge and hope of what they might be contributing to. In the case of the corporate controlled genocide of Iraqi civilization, and cannibalism of its oil resources, there is death, damage and abandonment for Iraqi citizens, improverishment to the average USI (United States of Israel) citizen, and soldiers worked beyond human endurance, who will be lucky to return home with their heads intact. If an invalided, the average soldier, for his pains, may fight the government bureaucracy that will not afford enough care for service related conditions. All the armies and weapons in the world cannot get money from a under funded bureaucracy, in a bankrupt nation, paid by worthless US dollars.

Such working conditions and arrangements would quickly result in a strike, even a job abandonment under any other occupation. No wonder private contractors are paid heaps more. I would imagine to continue soldiering on must be the result of savagely twisted minds and brute enforcement. The soldiers would be better off in the long run by joining with the Iraqis and ending the occupation.

Do not confuse this soldier with a true conscientious objector. Watada has no objections to war.

Didn't we try SS men at the end of WWII and they contended they were just obeying orders? But, no one in the military bought that as a excuse. So, we tried them anyway for war crimes. I think several served a lot of years in jail due to it. Several in Iraq had been tried also. But, still the Bush Administration keeps telling the 'fringe lunatics' how evil Moslem's are and we should kill all of them and show them no mercy. Then everyone wonders why they commit atrocities? But no one seems to see the hypocrisy in the whole sick exercise.

I think we should all thank Lt. Watada for being courageous and a real soldier. Not many others can do this as witnessed in the number of retired generals now putting thier thoughts about the war out there. Where was their courage when it was needed—when they were in the army.

Thank you 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. This is an illegal, aggressive war. You are not the one that should be on trial. Hopefully soon you will be free and the real criminals will be held responsible.

Domino writes, "Do not confuse this soldier with a true conscientious objector. Watada has no objections to war." I don't believe that any of the 28 comments before Domino's showed any sign of "confus[ing] this soldier with a true conscientious objector." All of the comments seem to recognize that it is the assault upon Iraq to which Lt. Watada objects; all thank and praise him for his objection; as do I. Hector

I agree it takes real man to question an immoral and illegal war

Watada's a real patriot and hero!

No president of the United States has ever been sanctioned or tried or convicted by the courts or Congress for engaging in aggressive war. The US engaged in intermittant violations of treaties regarding the use of force from 1818 to 1945. After that treaty violations in the use of force became constant--with impunity. So the case of Lt. Watada is quite important. I hope at least, he is freed. At most, let the rule of law in US foreign policy finally begin. His case is a good example of the notion that it is possible to have enormous strength of conscience. And that it is also possible to train an entire military organization and militaristic culture to abandon their consciences. That there are so few Watadas is very sad.

"Ron November 9th, 2007 1:35 pm
The guy who honors the UN Charter, the US Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rule of Nuremberg, all of which outlaw wars of aggression, gets prosecuted while those who scoff at the rule of law and murder 1.2 million get a free pass. America is the greatest country in the world. Sure."

I agree with Ron 100%.

Ehren Watdata,

Though I never knew you,
though you look foreign to me,
I admire the stance you took, and hope
that if I were ever in your position,
I would have the courage to stand up
and do as you did.

there will be a reckoning of our words and actions during these times. those who stood up and denounced what was morally wrong at great personal risk will be honored. there is still time. doing so when it is "safe" to do so just doesn't cut it. aloha and thank you lt. watada.

It is conciousness in all our thoughts, actions, and speech that will lead the human species towards peace. It is absence of conscience that will be our and the earth's undoing. Because we have a extraodinary cognitive functioning we can create beautiful art, architecture, technology and poetry. If we are not concious of the effect of our actions, that same cognitve ability can be destructive. Long life to all who are conscientious and humble. We must lay down our thoughts of ill-will superiority and gain and come into the brotherhood of man.

Ehren Watada for President! At least he upholds and defends the Constitution of The United States!