Doing the right thing sends military officer to trial

First Lt. Ehren Watada is an extraordinary man. He joined the military of his own accord, but when given orders to deploy to Iraq, he refused. While I do question the wisdom of anyone who voluntarily joins the military without being willing to go wherever the military sends them (after all, soldiers are pretty much just property of the U.S. Goverment), I have to applaud this man for following his conscience.

Watada is convinced that Iraq is an illegal war and that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the invasion. This ideological conviction of his arose after he received his deployment orders and spent time doing what his batallion commander taught him -- know all there is to know about a mission.

Watada took that instruction to heart and, after receiving his orders, spent countless hours researching Iraq. He read books. He talked to combat veterans. He poured through media reports.

Watada decided he could not fight in Iraq. He submitted his resignation, but the Army denied it. He considered filing for conscientious objector status, but he decided he could not ethically do so because he doesn't oppose bearing arms. Now, he faces the prospect of four years in a military prison.

Men like Watada are rare. He followed his conscience by refusing deployment to Iraq. He refused to lie and claim conscientious objector status. He took his stand, knowing that he would face a court-martial and prison.

I am aware of the difficulties the military faces and how such insubordination can seriously compromise war efforts and, ultimately cost lives. However, our laws and our history mandate that even soldiers refuse to obey orders when doing so would violate law or constitute a crime against humanity. Many German Soldiers were prosecuted for just following orders during the Holocaust.

If, in fact, the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify an invasion into Iraq, then the real criminal in this situation, is George W. Bush and those in his administration who supported such misrepresentation. At the very least, the Bush Administration followed "faulty" intelligence in making a decision to invade Iraq (the whole "Weapons of Mass Destruction" fiasco is old news).

Regardless of one's view on the validity of the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq, one thing is clear. Watada is a man of conscience who faces prison for doing nothing more than following his conscience. I believe military prisons are wasted on housing such people.

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Final Note: The author would like to make it clear that this blog should in no way be construed as providing an opinion about whether or not the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq. Whether or not the U.S. did the right thing by originally invading Iraq, the situation there is now, quite frankly, a mess, and I'm not entirely sure pulling out of a country after destroying most of its infrastructure is the right thing to do. Frankly, without much more detailed information, I feel I can't form a well-supported opinion on whether the U.S. should pull out of Iraq.

UPDATE 2/7
A judge declared a mistrial today in this court-martial, saying the soldier did not fully understand a document he signed admitting to elements of the charges.