Betraying an Oath

Don't send him to Iraq for convoy duty. I wouldn't have wanted that prick riding with me.

Make him do something like the CCU that the Marines have. It's like boot camp, except about ten times worse. You pt several hours a day. You march around with sledgehammers at port arms. You spend hours making big rocks into little rocks with synchronized blows.

Let him do that for a few years.

I wouldn't want to see this coward son of a coward father anywhere near our 99.999% of good troops. Let him command his own outfit made up of Jese MacBeth, and the IVAW 2 or 3. A unit of 5 or so should be about the limit for this coward anyway.
At least the Vietnam protestors had the draft to bitch about. This is a 100% volunteer military. Anyone in now, has joined or re-upped since we began it. This Lt is just using this as an excuse to avoid combat duty. COWARD is he!
nuf sed

DD, private, and prison. Twenty years - no time off nonsense - ought to do it.

I think this sick puppy thinks he's getting a slap on the wrist and then off to become the next John Kerry. Best to disabuse him and any other like minded fools immediately.

He is just another jerk who won't follow orders. It happens hundreds of times a day all over the world, people who won't abide by a company's policy, who won't complete assignments, who don't show up for work, etc. etc. At least this dog-breath won't be endangering anyone's life in Iraq and if he is to be given 30 years in a red-line brig, 5 years ought to be knocked off the sentence for that reason. He has also saved someone else from a prison sentence for having to frag his dumb ass in Iraq so another 5 years should be knocked off the sentence. 20 years hard brig time and the ol' dishonorable is the judgement I pass on him. I don't see why they can't do things like on tv - you know, his sword gets broken and handed to him - all the troops are lined up and they turn their back on him as he is drummed out of the fort and lowest ranked enlisted man at the gate gives him a kick in the ass as he leaves.

Are you against all who are conscientious objectors or just this guy?

He is not applying for conscientious objector status. He says he does not oppose all wars but has a moral objection to the Iraq war.

He graduated from Hawai'i Pacific University in 2003, joined the Army shortly after and went to OCS. He chose to become an Army officer well after the war in Iraq started.

Source: Lieutenant defies Army over 'illegal' war

Actually I'm against anyone who takes a paycheck and won't do the job he/she is being paid for. Such people hide behind false motives. They are liars with hidden agendas and are not up-front with anyone about their motives and agendas - sort of like anonymous posters who don't have enough self respect to even make up an internet name. This character took an oath and a paycheck and was fully cognizant, apriori, of what he was getting into, of what was expected of him. Can't we highlight somebody working for the defense industry who walks off his high paying job because he/she finds it morally offensive? There must be thousands of them, or at least hundreds of them. This guy needs to make a porn video with Cindy Shehan and sell it to Liberals- he is going to need money for lawyers and loss of income when he gets fired for refusing to do the job he agreed to.

This guy is a coward, plain and simple. As a poster pointed out above, he joined the Army AFTER the war in Iraq started. And, even after that fact, he hangs around for several years playing Army (and policing up a nice paycheck, mind you) and now that his unit is put on alert for deployment he wants out. That reeks of cowardice AND opportunism. He's too chickenshit to simply say, "hey guys, I'm scared of combat." He wants to jump on the political bandwagon. Perhaps that was his plan all along.

Another item that jumps out at me is how in the hell was he in the active Army for this long and avoided deployment?

Its hard to find good help.

Oh fuck. He's in my old battalion.

Drum him out now. What a POS.

That commission he accpted states "The President of the United States, reposing special trust and confidence in.." He has betrayed that trust. He has betrayed the oath he took "without reservation." And he has betrayed every other man and woman who has taken that same oath and honored it.

He deserves a general court martial and the maximum sentence. Twenty years in Levenworth ought to be about right.

Marine6 sends

20 years making big ones into little ones, minimum! But only because the bleeding hearts wouldn't allow the death penalty for mutiny that he deserves.

Heh. John, I finally feel the sting of being quoted without context making me look like a moonbat.

Gee, thanks!

Farking Lieutenants. All y'all aren't worth the powder to blow you from the guns.

8^)

Shame on you. What are you saying to those patriotic Privates in Iraq doing those convoys?

ya missed the point Bob

Are you against all who are conscientious objectors or just this guy?
anonymous · June 8, 2006 04:11 AM

Just this clown..pulling a political stunt.

I do not oppose conscientious objectors, which he is not.
Sgt York was drafted, was a conscientious objector, who was ordered to France..Once there he was a damn fine soldier.
This clown volunteered for OCS, he applied(requested) the Army hire him as an officer.
He has refused to obey his orders, he will be punished as a courts-martial directs.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

Not that it gives my point any extra validity, but, to address the personal attacks I'd expect from those who think it matters: I'm going on 15 years Active Army, proud to serve, love the USA, etc.

Now, let's just suppose, just for the sake of argument, that the words in the oath of office are meant to be taken seriously, and that an officer's first duty is to the Constitution, not to the President or his unit or his buddy or whatever. And suppose, by some fluke, that our political system is cynically manipulated in an unconstitutional way to lead our great nation into a war under false pretenses. Wouldn't an officer who becomes aware of this have some obligation under his oath to support and defend the Constitution, against ALL enemies? Isn't it possible that the officer's oath is worded the way it is because our founders knew that honoring the Constitution is one thing that makes our country unique?

Just think about it.

I don't believe our country is in such a grave crisis (as Thailand was recently for example) that military officers should disobey the President's orders. But, I think LT Watada has somehow come to believe this. And, believing this, he is obligated to follow his oath to support and defend the Constitution, in the best way that he can. He may be misguided, but there's no basis for all the personal attacks. Joining the Army in wartime is not the action of a coward. He volunteered to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq (not a picnic there either). Personally I'd rather spend a tour in either place than weather all the personal attacks and scorn that is heaped on him.

Again, he's misguided, but I have to respect him having the courage to stand on his convictions. Choosing the hard right over the easy wrong - this is what we want our officers to do.

words from one of my favorite Presidents:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore
Roosevelt, 1918