Posted on 02/07/2007 12:21:31 PM PST by jazusamo
FORT LEWIS -- The court-martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada ground to a halt Wednesday as his lawyer and the judge sparred.
Again the issue was Watada's views on the Iraq war -- opinions that kept him from going with his unit to the conflict and that the judge, Lt. Col. John Head, doesn't want brought up at the court-martial.
The dispute kept Watada off the witness stand Wednesday morning, where he was to testify in his defense, and prompted the judge to suggest there might have to be a mistrial.
Watada, a Stryker Brigade soldier, is the first commissioned officer to refuse to be deployed to Iraq. Watada's unit left this sprawling base for Iraq in June, but Watada remained behind. He said he believes the war is illegal and that his duty is to not abide by illegal orders.
But Head has tried to keep the court-martial from becoming a tribunal on the war and its legality and has ruled that Watada's attorney cannot present witnesses to question the war's legality. Outside the base, that has been the issue as peace activists from across the country have rallied to Watada's side.
Watada is charged with missing movement to Iraq and with two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer. Those last two charges result from statements Watada made against the war in a video tape released to reporters after he made his refusal to go to Iraq public and to a Veterans for Peace convention at the University of Washington.
He had been charged with two other counts of conduct unbecoming for interviews he gave. Prosecutors dropped those charged in return for Watada's signing a stipulation that he had given the interviews. He also acknowledged in the stipulation that he didn't go with his unit to Iraq, though he didn't admit his guilt to the missing movement charge.
With the jury of officers out of the courtroom Wednesday morning, Head wanted to question Watada about the stipulation to make sure that it was accurate and to protect the lieutenant against any mistakes in it. The stipulation would be used in instructions to the jury.
But Eric Seitz, Watada's attorney, objected to the questioning. He said the stipulation should include Watada's reasons for not going to Iraq: His views that the war is illegal.
"It has always been his position that not only would he miss movement but he would not participate in a war he considered illegal" and not participate in war crimes, Seitz said.
"His specific intent was of a different character all together" than simply missing his unit's deployment to Iraq, Seitz said.
But Head said he wanted to inquire about the stipulation to make sure there wasn't a "material misunderstanding" in it.
If Head can't question Watada and make sure the stipulation is accurate, he would have to throw the document out. That would mean the two charges that had been dropped would be returned against Watada.
And the judge said he might have to declare a mistrial.
With the court-martial delayed, the judge and lawyer tried to work out their differences to keep a mistrial from being declared.
If an order is illegal an officer is required to disobey it. The court doesn't want to get into that, and I don't blame the judge. However, if they don't want the defense getting into it, they will have to come to a compromise.
Oh, but they can nail him on the two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer.
I don't see a downside to it other than the antiwar movement getting a little more air time. Watada could get more hard time and that would be a good thing.
It looks like it will be a mistrial now. The judge gave the prosecution 30 minutes to decide if they wanted a mistrial and that was about 20 minutes ago.
"Throw his ass on a plane and boogie to Baghdad."
And give him his jump wings.
Even if you accept the fact that the Iraq war is illegal (which it is not) it is NOT the place of a junior officer to determine a war's legal validity. The requirement not to obey illegal orders only extends to those orders that are INHERENTLY illegal; i.e. murdering POW's and civilians, wanton destruction of private property, looting, etc. The lawful order to deploy to a war that has been affirmatively voted upon by the Congress of the US is beyond the scope of an artillery lieutenant to legally determine.
Even though the German Wehrmacht fought for one of the most evil causes in human history, no German soldier was prosecuted for conducting military operations within the established contemporary norms of the Rules of War and International Treaty Agreements. It was accepted that the defeated German Army had the right to court-martial those of their members who violated German Army regulations.
Lt. Watada should not be exempt from the just application of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as the US Army seeks to maintain morale and discipline in the worthy cause that his noble comrades are engaged in.
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