Can you believe this Army lieutenant that is refusing to go to Iraq?

Question

Even if he is tired of seeing soldiers being killed I think he should still feel obligated to go. He is in the Army for christs sake!!! I cannot believe that an officer would act this way, thank God for the men and women we have that will truly do what they signed up to do and defend this country!!! God bless the USA!!!!

By the way I am an Army veteran who served 10 months in Iraq

to nightingale, just to let you know I am also a military wife who's husband is currently in Iraq. I was there before the actual war even started. So it looks like you are the one who needs to get your facts straight before criticizing MY OPINION!!! I am not the cold hearted ***** you think I am ;0)

Answer 1

I am a military wife I don't know anthing about this "article" I stopped listening to the news when my husband left for iraq, they are never truthful anyway. Do not believe all that you read you only get what they want you to believe not what is realy there. its all twisted. and after so many deployments a military man has the right to say no, and you should not criticize a man not wanting to see his friends and companions die, be glad he still has a human Enough heart to still see it. some don't feel anything when a friend dies right beside him. and he has defended our country and sacrificed. do not belittle him for saying he can't Handel anymore,it is his mental health not yours he has prob seen allot more than you have. men have been tortured and brutalized in ways the American public doesn't hear about only we do. so your a vet who has been over once for 10 months. go talk to those who went in the beginning who were there when there was no water to drink, who saw the real carnage. left there families and children for YEARS at a time. 10 months is nothing, you don't have the truth to talk, you speak with out understanding, if you had it you would not speak in such a way. My husband is still there, and it is better that the men who have had enuf to stay home. we have alreay had enough men die because his buddy paniced and killed himself and those around him.Please get the facts, before you gallivant on unfounded emotions.

Answer 2

Yeah it is kind of odd he looking at facing 6 years in prison. I watched some documentaries on prisons a few days ago and prison is not a nice place to be. You have a room smaller then a horse stable, it’s just a tough place to be. I can only imagine if this man goes to prison and the other prisoners don’t agree with what he has done, they will make his life a living hell for the next 6 years.

Whether someone believes in a war or not if you joined the services which mind you is voluntarily I don’t think you should refuse to go over. There are many men and woman who would prefer not to be over there. I have known many people that have been over there since the war started.

Answer 3

I sympathise with him and think him extremely brave to refuse to serve as he did. He is one true conscientious objector.
He might have signed up to serve but going to Iraq to fight a sham war is not "defending" his country but rather, to help invade another without justifiiable cause.
In your case, you were led, blindly as it turned out, to believe that you were fighting to save America by waging war on a country that has not done yours any harm. You have a Government which forced other countries to join it in a war on the filmsiest of evidence of terrorism, on lies and falsehood.
You have no right or reason to act as you did against a sovereign state who has not done any harm to yours. The mere fact that politicians with their own agenda saw fit to declare war should not mean the whole of America must jump into the fray. You now know that all the reasons spinned out to justify the war have been rroved to be utterly false.
Do you not feel any remorse, participating in all the killings, causing all the devastations and creating endless sectarian voilence?
Surely you are not proud that more than 3000 of your fellow soldiers are dead and thousands wounded besides the hundreds of thousands of the locals killed, wounded, homeless and fleeing?
Ever ask yourself what has been achieved or changed for the better and when will the continuing bloodshed end? Even your President has no answer to the problems he so stupidly created other than hoping that Iraq may become "better."
Worse, America conducted a kangaroo court which quickly found Saddam guilty and consigned him to the gallows post haste.
If he was guilty of crimes against humanity, is it not the function of the International Court in the Hague to judge?
Yes as a soldier, you must obey orders. If so, what is the difference between accepting orders from Bush to kill and for Saddam issuing same to his solders? Would you agree that Bush be tried also for crimes against humanity? Is it because the American way is more civilised than others? What are the standards for judgment here?
The objecting liieutenant is a thinking soldier whereas nearly 140,000 others of you are robots, is all! Pity is that most of you do not know what you do and perhaps even enjoy what you do under the pretext of "defending" America.
How about going after Osama and Al-Queda fighters and for that matter to take the war to Saudi Arabia. You may or may not know that nearly all the militants flying the planes of the 9/11 episode and the great Osama were proud Saudis. Indeed, Osama and his family members used to (and maybe still are) do big business with the Bush clan.The very strange thing is that America considers Saudi Arabia one of its closest allies!! God bless all conscientious objectors!.

Answer 4

Do tell how 120k + American military members are protecting America while slogging through sand in Iraq.

Sheep like you need to wake up. The only way Iraq could hurt America is by bringing a bomb into America through its borders, which we all know are porous as hell.

By the way, I've done 10 years AD, and was in the Gulf in 1991. This current SNAFU in Iraq is a sad excuse for finishing what the first war left undone.

Answer 5

You need to actually think about his reasons... Have you even read them?

Yes I think he's point of view is right, but I do not feel that he should not go on his fare share of sand in his pants...

Btw Iraq isn't much of a threat to us, Saddam H. was morally wrong but was never a threat to us. I'm glad he is out and that all it should be, none of that freedom crap, those guys need to settle their own government by themselves... We can't make them do anything.

I know you aren't cold hearted, however it feels like you have no reason to support your opinion or counteract against his reasons why he doesn't want to go.

I can believe why he isn't going, I would go personally since it is my duty, but yeah you can't avoid the consequences of your mistakes once it's made. In his case he joined the Army before researching into this and ended up screwing him self. His reasons are good, but all this could have been avoided if he waited and researched before he joined... But yeah, I agree with his opinions but again he should be going, he is a ******* officer in the ******* Army, and he should have his opinions but be an example to the enlisted by following his DUTY he SIGNED UP for. But bravo for this soldier, he thinks instead of obey.

Oh and who says God only blesses the States?

Answer 6

It honestly shocks me that he wouldn't follow through with his initial decision (which he made in 2003). I am Hawaiian and the fact that he would be so patriotic, and then not support his soldiers is utterly shocking. I believe that anyone, regaurdless of race or how long they have served, would refuse to help the men and women that they trained with. That is more then using a moral compass against a war you don't believe in, that is just disappointing your troops, especially as an Lt.
I want to thank you for your stance, and thank you for supporting your husband continually.

Answer 7

OK I really wish people would stop saying we are fighting for lower gas prices (They Need To Get A Clue) then turn around and say gas prices are high and it is George Ws fault. The reason we are in Iraq is it is centraly located and we need to fight them there instead of here. Over 16,000 of them killed or killed by them as inocent cavilians this year alone . And listen up Iran better pay close attention. YOU ARE NEXT( read the fine print ) as of Sept 11th 01 we are putting an end to all this BS and George W said it from the get go this thing is going to take 5,6,7 years it wont be a quick fix.... So to the guy who refuses to go to Iraq he should have read the job description when he joined the ALL VOLUNTEER ARMY!!! U.S.M.C

Answer 8

ok it looks like none of you have read the artical.

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs19056

KEVIN SITES: Now, you joined the Army right after the US was invading Iraq and now you're refusing to go. Some critics might look at this as somewhat disingenuous. You've taken an oath, received training but now you won't fight. Can you explain your rationale behind this?

EHREN WATADA: Sure. I think that in March of 2003 when I joined up, I, like many Americans, believed the administration when they said the threat from Iraq was imminent — that there were weapons of mass destruction all throughout Iraq; that there were stockpiles of it; and because of Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorist acts, the threat was imminent and we needed to invade that country immediately in order to neutralize that threat.


read the artical...when he signed up he was prepared to fight..but then he woke up to the fact that it was a bullshit war.created out of lies.And he volunteered to go in 2005 when a unit was short of junior officers.

oh yea..just listning to the interview...he is prepared to go to a legal war,aka he is prepared to go to afgastain.

Answer 9

We will not "win" this war. It need to come to an end. What if we
sent every last man and woman in the military to fight. We wouldn't have any left. People are sick and tired of fighting a war
that is pointless and ineffective. We came, we saw, we conquered...and should have got the heck out of there. No exit
stragedy plan...before going in. BAD decision. Now what ? Do
we just keep sending more people to get killed?? Will do do it ?
NO. You served, by choice, that's great. Most Americans side
with Cindy Sheehan. Though he is a soldier....I don't blame him
one bit. This is another Vietnam. We need to GET OUT. Let the
Iraqi's make their own way. We will not be able to catch or prevent every single attack on our own soil. Safety is an illusion.
We need to concentrate our efforts on our own Country.

Answer 10

Ten months over there and whatever time you've spent at home and your still clueless---Why admit it publicly?

There's nothing wrong with having moral standards and taking a stand/along with the majority--in order to make light of a wrong. Sacrificing freedom for possible prosecution is much better than sacrificing your body for something that you know is wrong.

Yeah yeah there's the whole duty thing, but why should that overshadow the overall significance of this man's actions?

By the time this guy gets his day in court the likelihood of the truths behind his justifications will be front and center and he will be acquitted--is that what it's gonna take for people to comprehend his true duty as a patriotic America--let's hope not.