.
In a video press conference announcing his refusal to deploy to Iraq, Watada noted, “Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. 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.”
While evidence of the war’s illegality was barred in Watada’s court-martial, his position is grounded in military law and doctrine. At a National Press Club luncheon February 17, 2006, just a year before Watada’s court-martial, Gen. Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked, “Should people in the US military disobey orders 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.”
The Army wants to sentence Ehren Watada to six years in the brig for the crime of trying to fulfill that absolute responsibility.
Related Posts:
- Watada’s 2nd Court-Martial Stayed by Federal Court
- Federal judge delays Watada trial, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Watada’s second court-martial on hold, Seattle Times
- Watada Update
- ALERT! New trial for Lt. Watada 10/9/07!
- Refiled Vs. Ehren Watada
- Lt. Ehren Watada’s Mistrial
- Rockland Green to attend Watada Court Martial
- What Does It Mean To Support Our Troops?
- The Nation disses War Resisters
- General Pace’s Skewed Morality by David McReynolds
- keeping soldiers from being redeployed to Iraq
- Agustin Aguayo found guilty of desertion
- Who can stop the War? We the People
- How the Democratic Congress betrayed American voters, the troops in Iraq and extended the occupation
- Dems conning Anti-War movement for political gain
Filed under: Anti-War, international politics, To Study Up On Nonviolence, US Politics
[…] The Nation on Watada […]