A Soldier's Duty? The Ehren Watada Story

At the luncheon of the National Press Club on Feb. 17, 2006, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, was asked by his interviewer, John Donnelly: "Should people in the U.S. military disobey orders that they believe are illegal?" Pace's response:

"It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral."

And from President Bush's famous "48 Hours" speech, we know that for anyone who carried out illegal acts, Bush stated: "It will be no excuse to say 'I was just following orders.'"

And yet, we have the case of Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the unlawful Iraq War and occupation. For the first time since 1965, the military is prosecuting an objector for his opinions. Bush himself has said that Iraqis should not obey orders they regard as illegal. As Watada correctly identifies the Iraq war as illegal, why is he being prosecuted for the doing the very thing that Bush asked Iraqi soldiers to do? Refuse to obey an illegal order.



tag: Ehren Watada, Iraq, 1441, Iraq war, accountability, foreign policy, UN, illegal, protest, freedom, war on terror