Is Ehren Watada a protest hero or a coward?

Point: Is Ehren Watada a protest hero or a coward?

By Andrew S. Lay, Hornet Editor In Chief

There are many arguments one could make in support of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first army officer to refuse to serve in Iraq. This guy is a complete conundrum to me. First and foremost, he joined the Army after the Iraq war had already started, saying he joined "out of a desire to protect our country." He served a one year term in South Korea before being transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington.

Once he found out that he would be going to war, he did some research and spoke with Iraq War veterans. He decided that the war was illegal. How convenient for him. For those of you who don't know, military officers and all soldiers, sign away many of their rights when they enlist or are commissioned.

These are rights like free speech. Soldiers also swear to serve the President of the United States and Congress. Lt. Watada has failed miserably at both of these oaths.

He says the war is illegal and that there were no WMDs. Congress voted and chose to give the President the power to go to war. Saddam Hussein had WMDs, everybody knows this. He had used them for years to gas the Iranians and the Kurds who reside in Northern Iraq. The real question is where did they go?

Lt. Watada said that he was concerned about the legality of the war, what about the legality of his decision to refuse to deploy? What about the oaths he took to defend his country and obey the orders of his superior officers?

Obviously those things don't matter to Lt. Watada. He has no concept of honor. Many people have hailed him as a hero, a brave soul who stood up against injustice. What a joke!

I wonder what the soldiers he abandoned think of him. I wonder what they are thinking right now as they patrol the streets of Iraq or conduct checkpoints or raids. I wonder what they think when one of their friends die. I wonder if they ask each other where the officer who was supposed to deploy with them is. I wonder if anyone cares that while their lives are on the line this man, no, I won't even call him that, this boy sleeps in a comfortable bed in complete safety. What a coward.

Lt. Watada is a disgrace to the United States Army. He is a disgrace to every military officer.

Lt. Watada was an officer in an infantry unit. The infantry, for those of you who don't know, are the men who do the army's dirty work. They stormed the beaches of Normandy and fought in the jungles of Vietnam.

Lt. Watada abandoned his men on the day of their deployment. He should be stripped of his rank and punished for his crimes. Four years in prison is a paltry punishment for skipping out on a war.

Counterpoint: Is Ehren Watada a protest hero or a coward?

By Jarrod Moore, Hornet Copy Editor

It is a sad usurpation of our nation's fundamentals to attempt to undermine the double jeopardy clause in the case of Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada is acting based on his perception of patriotism by refusing to fight a war he deems unjust and illegal.

The war in Iraq is not a part of President George W. Bush's "war on terror." It is the result of a deception that banked on the emotions of post 9/11 America in order to push a personal agenda of foreign affairs. There were no weapons of mass destruction, but, of course, by the time we found that out, we were neck-deep in propaganda instilling in us the pride of freeing a people from their horrible dictator. If that were the purpose for the war in Iraq, we would also be demolishing most of the Middle East and half of Africa as well.

The U.N. did not support Bush's attack on Iraq. We did it anyway. We utilized "shock and awe." We tortured. We were scandalous (Abu Ghraib anyone?). We never found a nuke, and we still don't have a specific reason to have ever been in Iraq in the first place. But we still press on, continuing Bush's agenda to dominate the Middle East by destroying a nation and converting it into a strategically-forced ally.

However, a problem occurs when members of the military do not agree with this "we" situation. No matter who's running the show, "we" carried it out.

Watada did not feel he fit in with the "we" in this ordeal; he was being deployed to fight a war he did not believe in. But because our president said "We gotta take over Iraq 'cause I ain't never watched no "Hee-Haw" in no foreign palace before," Watada was court marshalled for refusing to deploy. That's a questionable enough disciplinarian decision, but now, after the case was declared a mistrial, Watada may be illegally tried again for the same "crime" in mid-March.

This is an atrocity, taking place in a nation that prides itself on individualism, and an attack on the "freedom" that Bush's farce in Iraq is supposedly somehow meant to protect.

It is not cowardice to not fight a war you don't believe in; it is heroic to stand up against it. Yet standing for beliefs is subject to punishment. In this case, it seems just cause for disregarding the Fifth Amendment.

Spending the rest of your life as a target to xenophobic ignorant redneck tomato-chuckers who lump war and football in the same category is enough punishment.

Lt. Ehren Watada should not pegged a criminal or a coward; he should be commended for his bravery.