Lt. Watada is a real deal hero

Posted by Jan Frel at 8:01 PM on July 7, 2006.

"The Army has filed three charges against a lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq last month because he believes the war there is illegal. 1st Lieutenant Ehren Watada is the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. The charges against him include conduct unbecoming an officer, missing movement and contempt toward officials. He faces up to seven years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted."

Of course, Watada will challenge. Here's his lawyer, Eric Seitz:

...[W]e expected him to be charged with missing movement or violating an order to get on a bus to accompany his unit to Iraq. We did not really anticipate that they would charge him with additional offenses based upon the comments and the remarks that he's made. And that opens up a whole new chapter in this proceeding, because what the Army has clearly tried to do by the nature of these charges is send out a message to people in the military, that if you criticize the war and if you criticize the decisions that were made to bring the United States into this war, that you, too, could be charged with disloyalty, contemptuous remarks and disrespect for higher officers, and in this case, specifically in this charge, the President.

Sidney Blumenthal pointed out that at least two Supreme Court justices are willing to accuse the Bush administration of war crimes, so if it gets all the way up there, there may well be a ruling in his favor, the consequences of which could be massive. But first things first. On to the military courts!

Watada is a hero.

Jan Frel is an AlterNet staff writer.