bulldogg
Milforum's Bouncer
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9599C40D-EA35-44CC-BC97-E1BD6518865C.htmUS army officer refuses Iraq tour
Thursday 08 June 2006, 8:49 Makka Time, 5:49 GMT
Ehren Watada was to be deployed to Iraq later this month
A US army officer who is refusing to fight in Iraq has said serving there would make him party to war crimes.
Supporters of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, 28, say he is the first commissioned US army officer to publicly refuse to go to Iraq, while the Pentagon says he is among a number of officers and enlisted personnel who have applied for conscientious objector status.
Watada said: "The wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people is not only a terrible moral injustice but a contradiction of the army's own law of land warfare.
"My participation would make me party to war crimes."
Watada was speaking at a news conference on Wednesday in the US town of Tacoma.
He had been scheduled to be deployed to Iraq for his first tour later this month.
Watada said his moral and legal obligations were to the US constitution and "not those who would issue unlawful orders".
In recent weeks, soldiers have been accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, raising concern's about the US army's behaviour in Iraq.
Paul Boyce, an army spokesman at the Pentagon, said Watada's case was being reviewed, adding it "is not the first case, nor is his case particularly unique".
This story has been picked up on various papers around the world. I have highlighted for emphasis the parts which I take extreme exception to. Let's forget about this little :cen: not fulfilling the oath he took to his country. Let's forget how he is betraying the men he has trained and prepared with.
He is making claims that I hope the US Army does not let go without making him prove his case thereby reversing the damage he has done by running his mouth so carelessly and recklessly. In his own selfish pursuit he has put my brothers in a more difficult and tenuous position. If the US Army doesn't stomp on his little cashews I will if given the opportunity.
:horsie: