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Ear to the Ground

Soldier of Conscience Survives Court-Martial, Goes Free

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Posted on Sep 29, 2009
AP / John Froschauer

Lt. Ehren Watada, the soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq on grounds that serving there would be participating in war crimes, is finally free of the Army. His court-martial ended in a mistrial and the military decided to let Watada go.  —PS

Los Angeles Times:

Watada, 31, a native of Honolulu, was court-martialed for refusing to join his unit on its deployment to Iraq in 2006. He also was accused of making statements critical of former President George W. Bush and the war that the military deemed “conduct unbecoming an officer.”

The proceedings ended in a mistrial, and a judge ruled that the Army could not retry Watada on most of the counts because of double jeopardy. Military prosecutors could have tried him on two charges stemming from statements Watada made that had been conditionally dismissed prior to trial.

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Hulk2008's avatar

By Hulk2008, September 30, 2009 at 6:35 am Link to this comment

I wonder if the Blackwater dudes have to go through courts martial if they don’t want to take a specific gig.  Might also be interesting to know what would happen if one of the military “contractors” decided to throw in the towel in the middle of a fire fight. 
  Apparently the Lieutenant just made the mistake of staying in regular military.  I never quite understood the idea that when you took the oath in the military that you automatically gave up most of your rights as a US citizen.  The UCMJ vs. Citizen’s Rights has always been an enigma.

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By Jim Yell, September 30, 2009 at 6:35 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Our founding fathers gave us a process for going to War. The process has been circumvented by sending troops illegally to war without first deliberating, without first examining all the “intellegence” and opinions before committing the military to battle. That is what happened in the Bush/Cheney bulling us into invading Iraq. This led to the rape of our national treasury by the Republicans and their gangs of goons, with unnecessary no bid contracts and no oversight.

Keeping these incidents of rebellion to military authority to a minimum is why we aren’t supposed to allow war on the impulse of a minority of aggressive leaders. It is why our military is supposed to be the United States Military and not the Corporate Goon Squad. No that they have acknowledged that they cann’t gain anything by prosecuting someone for observing the “Emperor Has No Clothes”, maybe we can get to the point of trying Bush/Cheney and Rumsfield amongst others for criminal treason and violating their oaths of office and so much more——like crimes against America and Humanity.

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LostHills's avatar

By LostHills, September 29, 2009 at 8:10 pm Link to this comment

Great news!
Now let the rest of our economic conscripts go free.

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