While I sit and type these words a brutal war wages in Iraq, where American troops and an insurgency hell bent on mayhem and destruction play hide and seek and whack-a-mole, trading massacres with retribution, and retribution with massacres.
Meanwhile half a world away, in a military camp in Washington state, a young lieutenant sits waiting his punishment, having announced his refusal to be deployed at the end of the month to the hell-on-earth chaos of the Mosul neighborhoods.
1st Lt. Ehren Watada, of the Stryker unit, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based at Fort Lewis issued the following video taped message (he was unable to attend in person the planned press conference scheduled to announce his decision):
(ABC News) "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 those who would issue unlawful orders. 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."
Reuters reports:
First Lt. Ehren Watada's supporters -- including clergy and a military family group -- said he is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to serve in Iraq and risked being court-martialed.
The Pentagon said Watada was among a number of officers and enlisted personnel who have applied for conscientious objector status.
"The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people 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," said Watada in a taped statement played at a Tacoma news conference.
His superiors at the nearby Fort Lewis military base would not let Watada leave the base to attend the press conference. Another news conference took place in Watada's native Hawaii.
However the Pentagon's claim is contradicted by the ABC News story:
Others have filed for conscientious objector status, which is an objection to all war. Watada, however, said he is not filing as a conscientious objector because he does not oppose all war -- just this one.
"The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people with only limited accountability is not only a terrible moral injustice but a contradiction to the Army's own law of land warfare," Watada said. (emphasis added)
The Pentagon's feeble attempt to classify Lt. Watada's position as a nothing to see here, move along non-event, is par for the course, but this is a story.
It is a bigger story than Tuesday's special election for a position that will be held for a mere 5 months. It is a bigger story than the gathering of Kossacks in Las Vegas. Yet these are the stories that have dominated Daily Kos, unfortunately squeezing out all others. I'd even say this will have a longer lasting effect on this war than the death of al-Zarqawi. Where Zarqawi sprung from another will come to replace him and we will soon forget Zarqawi. Yet if Watada's case becomes the first of many, public sentiment against this illegal war with no end will be galvanized ever more.
As little attention as this story is getting at Daily Kos, this could be a seminal event in the opposition to the Iraq war. Christopher Day added this astute comment to my original Kos diary entry on this on Tuesday:
Resistance inside the military was key to ending the war against Viet Nam. This history is not well known. A very good book [Soldiers in Revolt] on it has recently been reissued however after 30 years out of print.
Lt. Ehren Watada is not taking this stance half-assed. The thankyoult.org site is a testament that this process was well thought out and a support structure for his ensuing legal battles was pre-established. Even while he is receiving abuse, as would be expected, from those that would want him to fight in this immoral and deceitful war on their behalf, he is standing strong and he needs our support.
Look, the decision is made, people seem to be supportive of his decision, even if they don't think he should have taken it for one reason or another, so we have a choice: we either help him, however our voice and influence can, or we forsake him, and let the military do their worst justice on him so that they can set an example.
If you wish to show your support you can start here by signing this petition, or you can donate money for his legal expenses.
You can write about this on your own blog, or write your support in a letter or email to your congress person or senator.
You can demonstrate in the streets, or write letters to newspaper editors in support of his case.
Lt. Watada shouldn't be the one on trial here, it should be the lying leadership we have plotting this nation's ruin in the White House. Lt. Watada shouldn't be the one on the defensive, it should be the President who made the naive, foolhardy, decision based on lies and deceit, to invade Iraq, and has no plan to get America out of there.
Instead Lt. Watada will be the target of vitriol and anger. He and his family will suffer emotional and financial distress. He will be ostracized by the military, and likely every organization that props up this President and this illegal war. Just watch the pious fear-worshipers prey on him like vultures on carrion.
Who needs the antichrist when we live amongst that lot?!
Ehren Watada statements as reported in the Seattle Times are clear:
"I feel that we have been lied to and betrayed by this administration. [...] It is the duty, the obligation of every soldier, and specifically the officers, to evaluate the legality, the truth behind every order -- including the order to go to war.
In a statement released today, Watada said 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 to the Army's own Law of Land Warfare. My participation would make me party to war crimes."
He has no illusions about what lies in store for him:
"I think they will do their best to make an example of me."
The question is, what kind of example will we make of ourselves? Our response to this will be telling.
Cross posted at On The Road To 2008.