Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: Ehren Watada

  • Citizens’ Tribunal Finds Watada Acted Legally

    Citizens’ Tribunal Finds Watada Acted Legally

    A Citizens’ Hearing on the Legality of US Actions in Iraq was held in Tacoma, Washington on January 20-21, 2007. The Citizens’ Hearing was organized in response to US Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada’s refusal to deploy to Iraq on grounds that the war is illegal, and in the belief that when government fails to act responsibly and legally it is the duty of citizens in a democracy to act.

    Lt. Watada faces a court martial on February 5, 2007 at Fort Lewis, Washington for failing to deploy with his Stryker Brigade to Iraq and for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” The military judge has refused to allow Lt. Watada to raise a Nuremberg defense, the basis of which is his contention that the war in Iraq is illegal and therefore orders to deploy to the war are illegal.

    The Citizens’ Hearing Panel, which I chaired, was composed of twelve citizens, who heard testimony on the issue of the illegality of the war – testimony that would have been introduced at Lt. Watada’s court martial if the military judge had allowed it. A majority of the Panel consisted of US military veterans going back to World War II, as well as a military family member, a Gold Star family member, a government leader, a religious leader, a union member and a high school student.

    The Panel heard testimony on four principal issues: whether the war in Iraq was an illegal war of aggression and thus a crime against peace; whether a systematic pattern of war crimes have been committed by US forces in Iraq; whether crimes against humanity have been committed; and whether a US military officer has a duty to refuse illegal orders. Testimony was presented by Iraq War veterans, experts in international law and diplomats.

    The testimony of the experts in international law was clear that the war in Iraq was initiated illegally. The US invasion of Iraq did not comply with the United Nations Charter, in that it was not authorized by the UN Security Council, nor was it required for immediate self-defense. It was a war of aggression, violating international law and the United States Constitution. Article 6, Section 2 of the Constitution makes the United Nations Charter, a treaty duly signed and ratified by the US government, a part of the “supreme Law of the Land.”

    The most powerful testimony presented came from five Iraq War veterans. They described a military training process in which the dehumanization of Iraqis was pervasive, creating an unhealthy environment conducive to the commission of war crimes. The veterans described the constant reference to Iraqis, at all levels of the chain of command, as hajis, ragheads and worse. Some described orders to shoot and kill children.

    One veteran described an instance in which he witnessed a frightened mother and daughter being shot in the back as they ran away from US troops. There was also testimony on the beating and killing of prisoners. The soldiers testified that the atmosphere of targeting civilians did not come simply from the individual soldiers, but from far higher in the command structure.

    The consistent testimony of the Iraq War veterans was that the lives of Iraqis were devalued and that war crimes were systematically committed as a result of the rules of engagement in Iraq. The Panel also received testimony on the systematic torture of Iraqi prisoners and on the use of heavy US weaponry in a manner that failed to discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Denis Halliday described the “shock and awe” initiation of the war as “a terrorist act.”

    Colonel Ann Wright, a former army officer and diplomat, testified that the United States had not met its obligations as an occupying power, and that grave breeches of the Geneva Conventions were occurring regularly in the treatment and torture of prisoners. Colonel Wright and other expert witnesses urged that US leaders be held accountable for their criminal actions.

    There was also testimony on crimes against humanity. Prominent in this testimony was discussion of the systematic destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure, including water facilities, sewage treatment facilities and electric power facilities. One expert, Antonia Juhasz, a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, testified that all the US orders to change Iraq’s laws to provide economic advantage to the US, particularly in relation to Iraq’s oil, were in violation of international law. Thus, all contracts created in this way must be rescinded and the profits returned to the Iraqi people.

    On the critical question regarding Lt. Watada’s refusal of orders, there was strong testimony that soldiers and officers are only required to obey lawful orders. In accord with the Nuremberg Charter and Principles, the US Constitution and US Army Field Manual 27-10, an officer has a duty to act lawfully by refusing to follow illegal orders. Insofar as the war in Iraq is an illegal aggressive war in which war crimes and crimes against humanity are being systematically committed, Lt. Watada acted lawfully in refusing orders to deploy to Iraq. Professor Richard Falk testified that the military judge’s order preventing Watada from presenting evidence on the illegality of the war was “criminally disallowing him from obeying the law.”

    The full report of the Panel of the Citizens’ Hearing will be released soon; some of the testimony is now available on the website www.wartribunal.org. The preliminary, but unanimous, finding of the Panel is that the US has committed crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq. Further, Lt. Watada acted legally and honorably in refusing orders to deploy to Iraq, and his actions are in accord with the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

    David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He was the panel chair and a member of the Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq held in Istanbul in July 2005.
  • Ehren Watada, an American Hero

    Ehren Watada, an American Hero

    I write in praise of Ehren Watada, a brave young man who has placed truth, honor and the law above blind obedience to authority. Watada, a 1st lieutenant in the US Army, has refused orders for deployment to Iraq on the grounds that he is bound to uphold the Constitution of the United States and not follow illegal orders. By taking this stand, he is putting the war, its initiators and those in charge of conducting it on trial while putting himself at risk of incarceration.

    Watada has taken the position that the war in Iraq is an illegal war of aggression, and that the conduct of the war and occupation has also followed a pattern of illegality directed from above. In a recent speech to the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Seattle, Lt. Watada said, “Today, I speak with you about a radical idea. It is one born from the very concept of the American soldier. The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it.”

    Lt. Watada’s idea is one that has echoes from Nuremberg. It was at Nuremberg that the victorious allied powers, including the Untied States, held Nazi leaders to account for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among the principles that derived from the Nuremberg Trials was one that said it is not an adequate defense to such crimes to argue that one was only following orders.

    Watada is taking a courageous and principled stand by refusing to follow orders to participate in an illegal war. He is exercising his rights as an American citizen, an officer in the United States Army and a human being with the capacity for thought and reflection. He is making it clear that he did not check his conscience at the door when he joined the military three years ago, and is unwilling to be placed in a situation where he will have no choice but to commit war crimes.

    Referring to the crimes of the Iraq War, Lt. Watada stated, “Widespread torture and inhumane treatment of detainees is a war crime. A war of aggression born through an unofficial policy of prevention is a crime against the peace. An occupation violating the very essence of international humanitarian law and sovereignty is a crime against humanity.”

    By his courage, Watada challenges our complacency. Certainly it is easier for most Americans to go along with an unjust and illegal war than to challenge it. That is what happened for years during the Vietnam War. That is what is happening now during the Iraq War, almost as if we had learned no meaningful lessons from the Vietnam War. Watada is challenging the code of silence in the military and in our society. He rightly points out that the crimes being committed in Iraq are funded with our tax dollars. “Should citizens choose to remain silent through self-imposed ignorance or choice,” he argues, “it makes them as culpable as the soldier in these crimes.”

    Lt. Watada is holding up a mirror to American society, one into which we need to take a hard look. Are we a people willing to go docilely along with yet another illegal war? Are we a people who condone torture and the denial of basic human rights and justice in the name of the false idol of fighting terrorism? Are we a people unwilling to recognize our own misdeeds that have led to the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and American soldiers?

    Lt. Watada is threatened with a Court Martial for refusing to deploy to Iraq and also for making statements deemed to be contemptuous of the President and other top government officials. One such statement was: “I was shocked and at the same time ashamed that Bush had planned to invade Iraq before the 9/11 attacks. How could I wear this [honorable] uniform now knowing we invaded a country for a lie?”

    Ehren Watada makes me proud to be an American, something the political leadership of this country has not done for a very long time. He is a young man with the courage to say that he will not fight in an illegal war. He is willing to risk his freedom in order to awaken others to the immensity of the tragedy we are inflicting on the people of Iraq and upon our own soldiers.

    Watada has said, “I am not a hero.” I disagree. He is a hero in a time that cries out for authentic heroes, those who act with integrity, conscience and courage.

    It is not Ehren Watada who should be on trial, but the leaders who planned and prosecuted this illegal war. Lt. Watada is giving us a wake-up call, and an opportunity to realign our values with those of our Constitution, the Principles of Nuremberg and the Geneva Conventions. Now is the time to break our silence, and bring to account the leaders who have violated our trust, broken our laws and demeaned America in the eyes of the world.

    David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). He is a leader in the global effort for a world free of nuclear weapons.

  • Appeal for Support for Lt. Ehren Watada

    Fellow Americans, ladies of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, I am honored by your invitation and I salute you for being a compelling voice regionally, nationally and internationally. I am awed by the fact that your time honored organization, which emerged out of the chaos of World War I, remains dynamic and relevant in the everchanging political, social, economic landscape. In an effort to extend the reach, you have taken on the formidable issues of our day, one being the illegality of the war and occupation of Iraq. Since the administration’s pre-emptive war in March 2003, the death toll among the “coalition of the willing” and the Iraqi people mounts daily and still there is no end in sight. You have called for “.a comprehensive and rapid plan for troop withdrawal (to) include the closure of all US military bases, support of a peace process in the post-occupation transition, payment of reparations to Iraq, and return of Iraqi control over its oil.”

    It is within this context that I speak. It is within this context that I ask for your support of my son, Lt. Ehren Watada, the first officer in the US military to refuse participation in the Iraqi war and occupation. In January 2006, he submitted a request for discharge, citing the illegality of the war and the ongoing crimes of occupation. He was not taken seriously. Several months later, he submitted a formal resignation packet and was formally denied. On June 22, 2006, despite overt pressure to comply, he quietly defied the movement order to board the Iraq-bound plane with his Stryker brigade unit.

    How did he arrive at this point, you ask? Through unbiased, rigorous scrutiny of the facts, reported by experts inside and outside the military and the structures of government, Lt. Watada concluded that he could no longer remain silent. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he swore to uphold the Constitution which includes all international treaties which the present administration chose to ignore. Blind obedience to orders that violated international law, he maintained, would make him party to illegal acts, multiplied many times over in his capacity as an officer.

    Through the inner turmoil of the past year, he realized that, despite being a member of the armed forces, he had not sold his soul. He had not relinquished the inalienable right to choose. Furthermore, he was not a mercenary or a mindless tool of politicians and the military-industrial complex whose sole interest lies in the “spoils of war,” no matter what the cost.

    As an officer in the US Army, conditioned not to think but to follow orders, he found that an act of conscience is a lonely road, traversed only if one is willing to accept the harsh consequences meted out by the military, the media, the manipulated masses who remain in ignorance and the “powers that be.”

    Since his case became part of mainstream media, he has been vilified on one hand and cast as a hero on the other. He maintains that the issue is not about him but about the illegality of the Iraqi war and occupation. He hopes that his action will empower others to take a stand, that it will awaken the consciousness of the American people and impel them to make their voices heard. He believes that the demand for the end to the war, the withdrawal of occupation forces and reparations must be an American agenda and not merely the agenda of anti-war activists, liberals, progressives and left-wing elements.

    On July 5th, the military formally charged Lt. Watada with failure to obey a movement order, contemptuous remarks against the president and behavior unbecoming an officer. Taken together, these offenses are punishable by up to 7 ½ years in a military prison. He awaits the article 32 hearing, slated for Aug. 17, 18 2006. This is a pretrial hearing to determine if there are grounds for a court martial. Whether or not he is given a fair hearing and permitted to submit evidence supporting his refusal to deploy and his first amendment rights remains to be seen.

    As his mother, I initially feared for my son’s safety and his future. The thought of the consequences overwhelmed me. Today, I can truly say that I have taken “the first step in a journey of a thousand miles.” I am lifted by the realization that there is a higher purpose to all that has transpired.

    When he first broke the news to me, I asked him to re-evaluate what he was about to do, to think about the impact of this decision on his career. He later said to me, “Mom, I felt betrayed by your trying to dissuade me. I know you love me and I know where all this comes from but you are asking me to betray myself. When all is said and done, I must be able to look at myself and be content that I followed the dictates of my conscience.” My son hoped for my understanding and reassured me that he loved me but it was clear, whether I approved or not, he would follow through with his decision. He said, ” Mom, whether one person supports me or no one does, I have the duty to do the right thing.” The die is cast. Come what may, he is committed to staying the course. For this, he has my utmost respect. I would expect no less from him.

    In closing, I wish to leave you with the words of William Butler Yeats. His poem, The Second Coming, written after the horrors of World War I during the rise of communism and fascism, forecasted the demise of Western civilization and the menacing advance of an “unknown world about to be born.” Though written during a different period, it is as compelling now as it was then.

    William Butler Yeats: “The Second Coming” (1921)

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre (1) The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
    Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming (2) is at hand; The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi (3) Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries (4) of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    Despite the cadence of doom, one is left with the choice to accept or reject Yeat’s fatalism. Lt. Watada chose to reject the inevitable. Today, I invite you to stand with him in his hour of protest. For ways you can participate, please visit www.thankyoult.org. Sign the petition to show your support. Familiarize yourself with the issues surrounding his case. Join us on August 16th, National Day of Education. On this day, supporters, nationally and internationally will host teach-ins, forums, house parties, etc. to address the question: “Is the Iraq War illegal?” Click on Resource Toolkit on the website’s main menu for some basic materials to use.

    August 16th is not only a day of education but a day of action as well. Rallies, bannering, vigils, church gatherings are planned. Join an existing group or create one that will make a difference. Begin laying the foundation for mass mobilization during the October court martial. For updates on this action, see www.thankyoult.org.

    The Lieutenant’s pretrial hearing on Aug.17th and 18th, in effect, puts the Iraq War on trial. This is a moment that has the capacity to alter the course of history. To this end, we must stand with Lt. Watada, remain of one mind, unwavering in our resolve. Through a collective will, energized by vision and courage, we will restore the beast to his “stony sleep.”

    Thank you.

    Speech delivered on July 22, 2006 for the Women’s International League for Peace And Freedom at Portland State University.