It Was My Duty to Refuse to Go to Iraq, Says First American Army Officer Facing Court Martial

By Alex Massie
Telegraph UK

Wednesday 22 November 2006

The first American army officer to face court-martial for refusing to serve in Iraq said yesterday that it was his duty to recognise and refuse "illegal" orders.

Lt Ehren Watada, 28, faces four charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his refusal to join his unit in Iraq in the summer. Speaking ahead of a pre-trial hearing, the conscientious objector pledged that he would "fight with everything I have for my freedom and that of all Americans. I will face imprisonment to stand up for my beliefs."

If he had gone to Iraq, his service would have been due to end next month. Instead, if convicted, he could face six years in prison.

He claimed that his refusal to follow orders had been justified by "a surge in popular resistance to the war as evidenced by the recent elections" and complained that "the army seems intent on making an example of me".

"No one else is speaking up for the troops dying every day," he said.

Lt Watada's court-martial comes at a time when the American public is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war in Iraq. Recent opinion polls find that a majority of Americans now consider the war a mistake.

His campaign has been supported by leading anti-war activists such as Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked Pentagon papers to the New York Times during the Vietnam War.

Lt Watada argues that the replacement of Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary demonstrates that the tide of public and political opinion is turning in his direction. A Japanese-American who was raised in Honolulu, he joined the army in March 2003 after graduating from Hawaii Pacific University. He said the September 11 terrorist attacks had inspired him to "serve my country in a time of need in what many of us felt was a war on terrorism".

He maintains that sacrifice has been betrayed by the Bush administration.

After passing through officer training, Lt Watada was deployed to South Korea. He subsequently began to doubt the morality of the Iraq war last summer as his unit returned to Fort Lewis, Washington. He then refused to follow orders when his Stryker armoured vehicle unit, part of the 2nd Infantry Division, was deployed to Iraq earlier this year.

His offer to serve in Afghanistan or resign his commission was rejected by the army, who say it is unacceptable for officers to pick and choose their assignments.

Justifying his objection to the Iraq war as a matter of conscience, Lt Watada said: "No crime is greater than to lie over something as grave as war. I felt that was a wrong I could not condone."

Pre-trial hearings have been set for early January and the court-martial is scheduled to begin in February.

Lt Watada's defence team intends to subpoena witnesses - including "decision-makers" - whose testimony will, they claim, demonstrate the war's illegality.

Lt Watada's lawyers argue that the war was illegitimate because it was not explicitly endorsed by the United Nations Security Council and because Congressional authorisation was based upon the faulty premise that Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction and was connected to al-Qa'eda. His defence team also plans to cite the Nuremberg tribunals' ruling that following orders from a superior officer does not exculpate soldiers from the consequences of their actions. He said the best way for the war to end would be if soldiers refused to serve.

Yesterday Lt Watada said every officer had a duty to consider whether they could serve in a campaign that made troops a party to war crimes. It was "the responsibility and obligation of members of the military" not to follow "unlawful and immoral orders".

Doing so would "not only be a betrayal of themselves but a betrayal of their country".

However, Lt Watada's lawyer, Eric Seitz, said that "under no circumstances are we criticizing the moral decisions [other servicemen] have made."

Lt Watada says his former colleagues, now serving in Iraq, respect his decision to follow his conscience rather than his orders.



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AWOL Soldier Gets Day in Court
By Aaron Glantz
OneWorld.net

Tuesday 21 November 2006

San Francisco - A U.S. serviceman who went AWOL after refusing to return for a second tour of duty in Iraq is getting a court hearing Tuesday.

Army medic Augustin Aguayo turned himself in this September and is currently incarcerated at the U.S. military prison at Manheim, Germany.

After his first tour in Iraq, Aguayo filed for status as a conscientious objector (CO), which the Pentagon denied.

He faces up to seven years in prison for refusing to deploy for a second time to Iraq.

His hearing before United States Court of Appeals in Washington, DC is a habeas corpus petition against the Army for wrongfully denying him conscientious objector status. It is believed to be the first such case before a federal court since 1971, during the Vietnam War.

"Under Supreme Court precedent from the Vietnam War, if we prevail - if the civilian court rules that he is a conscientious objector - then the Army will have to terminate court martial proceedings and simply let him go," Aguayo's attorney Peter Goldberger told OneWorld.

That could have implications for other soldiers who apply for apply for CO status, Goldberger said.

"While there [in Iraq] as a non-combatant, I was still required to do guard duty, although I chose to carry only an unloaded gun," Aguayo said in court statements written for the hearing.

"While there as a non-combatant, I was still required to patch up, treat, and help countless soldiers for 'sick-call' in order to facilitate their prompt return to combatant duties. While there as a non-combatant, I was asked to drive soldiers around on patrols, patrols which could have been deadly to Americans and Iraqis alike."

Aguayo wrote he regrets his involvement in those activities because ultimately, he was contributing to and enabling others to do what he opposed.

"By doing guard duty," he wrote, "appearing to be armed, even without bullets, I gave the false impression that I would kill if need be. I am not willing to live a lie to satisfy any deployment operation. By helping countless soldiers for 'sick-call' as well as driving soldiers around on patrols I helped them get physically better and be able to go out and do the very thing I am against - kill.

"This is something my conscience will not allow me to do."

U.S. military records show that between 8,000 and 10,000 soldiers are currently unaccounted for. It is not known how many are AWOL for political or personal reasons.

Hundreds of antiwar soldiers are believed to be AWOL in Canada, however, and hundreds of soldiers who are still on duty have filed an "appeal for redress" under the Pentagon's whistleblower protection laws allowing for protected communication with Congress.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," the petition reads. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home."

David Cortright, who protested the Vietnam war from inside the military and later authored the book Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War, told OneWorld he sees many parallels between the two wars.

"Many of us who were in the military went in not knowing what we were getting into, maybe not believing in the mission," he said, "but once we saw what was actually happening on the ground and we could see the injustice of this war, we felt compelled to speak out to alert our fellow citizens that the war was unjust. And now we're seeing in Iraq a similar kind of feeling and expression from people in the ranks."

Cortright said during the Vietnam war, like today, the Pentagon did their best to dilute the impact of antiwar servicemen, with similar results.

"They kept transferring us to different bases," he recalled. "They tried to tar us as troublemakers and then send us away. But what we found when we were sent to other bases was that there were many soldiers at these other bases who opposed the war as well."

"When I was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, within a week or two I hooked up with other soldiers that already opposed the war and began to work with an already existing antiwar committee at Fort Bliss. We're seeing the same thing today.

"There are antiwar networks at maybe six bases. There are groups of soldiers that are discovering that they're not alone. There are others out there that share these opinions and they're starting to connect."