During the August 17 Article 32 pre-trial hearing at Fort Lewis, the defense for Lt. Watada has succeeded in placing the war in Iraq on trial setting the stage for the court martial later this fall.
"We appreciated the opportunity to lay the groundwork to prove that the war in Iraq is illegal and that Lt. Watada, coming to this conclusion after much research, was duty bound to refuse to participate," Eric Seitz, civilian counsel for Lt. Watada said. "This case is really about the duty of individual soldiers to look at the facts and fulfill their obligation to national and international law," he said.
Lt. Watada addresses national veterans convention
With over 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War standing behind him, Lt. Watada offered the following to the Veterans for Peace national convention recently held in Seattle:
"Today, I speak with you about a radical idea. It is one born from the very concept of the American soldier (or service member). It became instrumental in ending the Vietnam War - but it has been long since forgotten. The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it."
A few days later,the video of this statement was presented into evidence against Lt. Watada at his pre-trial hearing.
2 comments:
This is very similar to the navy fellow who was judged innocent in his court martial. He was accused of deserting for refusing to board a ship bound for IRAQ. He countered that he would be breaking his oath to the military by obeying the order to ship out, based on the fact that obeying the order would force him to break international law.
Military personnell are sworn to obey all lawfull orders and protect this country from all threats, both foreign and domestic. I wonder sometimes, why the military hasn't stood up and "taken measures" to do uphold their oaths yet.
"This is very similar to the navy fellow who was judged innocent in his court martial."
Cool, so hopefully Watada will be found innocent as well. Thanks, I hadn't heard.
"I wonder sometimes, why the military hasn't stood up and "taken measures" to do uphold their oaths yet."
Probably because they don't feel they have to follow the same laws as everyone else.
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