Dispute halts Watada court-martial: Judge might have to declare mistrial.

seattlepi.com ^ | February 7, 2007 | Mike Barbar

[amchugh]

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.

[amchugh]

Oh, but they can nail him on the two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer.

[jazusamo]

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.

[jonrick46]

YaaaaHoooo! The Watada supporters think that this will buy time to muster up public sentiment. Not! They are digging their grave deeper. The military never thinks about public sentiment. They have a military tradition to uphold which includes following the law of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Watada is in deeper do-do because his lawyer want to grandstand his case for his far left friends.

[CodeToad]

"Throw his ass on a plane and boogie to Baghdad."


And give him his jump wings.

[jazusamo]

A mistrial has been declared in the case. A new thread has been posted.

[DMZFrank]

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.