Watada’s Legal Limbo

On June 22, 2006, U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Ehren K. Watada stepped forward as the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the Iraq War and occupation. He faced court martial and up to 6 years imprisonment for refusing to deploy and for speaking out against a war that he believes is illegal. Watada even volunteered to go to Afghanistan for a tour of duty, but the military drew the line, saying you don’t get to pick your tour of duty location.

You can find the whole Watada story here:
http://www.thankyoult.org/

Basically Watada was given orders to ship out to Iraq. The more he studied and learned about the illegal occupation of Iraq, he decided it would be against the vow he took to defend the Constitution, against all enemies foreign & domestic.

In the first Court martial trial, Watada said:

“Your Honor, I have always believed that I have a legal and moral defense. I realize that the government can make arguments and you can make rulings contrary to that, but that does not negate my belief that I have a defense.”

“To me,” Watada told the court, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq “means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal.”

Watada had hoped to make that argument under the so-called Nuremberg Principals which arose from trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II.

The fourth of the Nuremberg Principles says that superior orders are not a defense to the commission of an illegal act, meaning soldiers who commit a war crime because they were “just following orders” are just as culpable as their superiors.”

In February, Lt. Watada’s first court martial ended in a mistrial just before he was to take the stand in his own defense. Many observers believe the (military) judge, Lt. Col. John Head, ordered a mistrial in that case because he was worried that Lt. Watada’s testimony would lead to him being found not guilty of “missing [troops] movement” and “conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.”

But because a jury had already been selected, and testimony given, the declaration of a mistrial meant a future or further trial would be considered “doube jeopardy”, resulting in Watada being tried twice for the same alleged crime. U.S. law does not allow for “do overs”-, it seemed the ruling ended Watada’s case.

In fact his lawyers appealed on the double jeopardy issue i the military court, & it was denied.

This caused Watada’s legal team to take it to the US District Court, where Judge Benjamin Settle ruled the military cannot put Watada on trial a second time unless it can prove such a trial would not violate the US Constitution’s prohibition against “double jeopardy.”

On Nov 8th, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle issued a preliminary injunction, stating that Lt. Watada is likely to succeed at demonstrating that the military judge acted ‘irrationally, irresponsibly, precipitately’ and abused his ‘discretion.’

Incredibly, the Army announced intent to file briefs in U.S. District Court to try to prevent the injunction from becoming permanent, then did nothing.

Each day Lt. Watada’s legal limbo continues. He is required to report to his military base job, where he has been stripped of access to important information, so it is a do nothing job. He lives off the military base, but his life is stuck in this holding pattern.
Clearly the military is stuck in a limbo of their own. They already screwed up the trial & can’t proceed with the court martial. If they imprison Watada he will be a hero & a groundswell of support & pressure to release him would ensue. If they release him, then he was successful in his protest of the illegal occupation, perhaps setting a precedent for future soldiers.
So please feel free to write Watada. Thank him for taking a courageous stand. Tell him he & his efforts are not forgotten.

Click on the home section of his web site & choose contact us.

To be honest, I had hoped Watada’s action would have opened the floodgates of other soldiers following in his footsteps. Indeed other soldiers have refused to return to Iraq for 2nd or more tours of duty, the military takes great pains to make sure they do not get the publicity Watada did. Also if you’ve gone AWOL, you are not looking for publicity.

If soldiers refuse to take up arms, they are of no good to the military.

Thank You Lt. Watada ~ Your honor & conscience are still intact.

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