yeahwho
02-06-2007, 08:55 PM
OK so it's only a snapshot of Sean Penn (http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/02/06/PH2007020600255.jpg), but the court-martial of Ehren Watada is all the buzz in the NW today, Watada is an Army officer (lieutenant) and Iraqi War objector who refused to serve in Iraq.
The military accuses Watada, 28, of Honolulu, of refusing to ship out with his unit and conduct unbecoming an officer for accusing the Army of war crimes and for attacking the Bush administration's handling of the war. Although other officers have refused to deploy to Iraq, Watada is the first to be court-martialed.
This is the statement (http://www.thankyoult.org/mmedia/statement.html) the military urged Watada not to make (June 2006) that has sent him to these criminal proceedings,
"The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of Iraqis is not only a terrible and moral injustice, but it's a contradiction to the Army's own law of land warfare. My participation would make me a party to war crimes," Watada said in the video, which was played in court Tuesday.
"I was dismayed, probably a little bit betrayed," Antonia said. "I believe what he said was that the commander in chief made decisions based on lies, that he specifically deceived the American people. That is nowhere in the realm of a lieutenant in the United States Army."
It's an interesting case in the fact that others have refused to go and were not tried, Watada made his statement and is being tried.
Heres the whole article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020600252_2.html)
Thanks to Sean Penn for making it go national. (y)
The military accuses Watada, 28, of Honolulu, of refusing to ship out with his unit and conduct unbecoming an officer for accusing the Army of war crimes and for attacking the Bush administration's handling of the war. Although other officers have refused to deploy to Iraq, Watada is the first to be court-martialed.
This is the statement (http://www.thankyoult.org/mmedia/statement.html) the military urged Watada not to make (June 2006) that has sent him to these criminal proceedings,
"The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of Iraqis is not only a terrible and moral injustice, but it's a contradiction to the Army's own law of land warfare. My participation would make me a party to war crimes," Watada said in the video, which was played in court Tuesday.
"I was dismayed, probably a little bit betrayed," Antonia said. "I believe what he said was that the commander in chief made decisions based on lies, that he specifically deceived the American people. That is nowhere in the realm of a lieutenant in the United States Army."
It's an interesting case in the fact that others have refused to go and were not tried, Watada made his statement and is being tried.
Heres the whole article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020600252_2.html)
Thanks to Sean Penn for making it go national. (y)