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thedrifter
08-21-06, 07:29 AM
Moral compasses needed in Iraq

Reformer.com

Monday, August 21
The Tacoma News Tribune wrote the following in a recent editorial:

A thought experiment: What if 1st Lt. Ehren Watada had been at Haditha?

The scenario is far-fetched. Watada -- now facing possible court martial for refusing to deploy to Iraq in June -- is an Army officer. The troops suspected of massacring 24 civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19 were Marines. They were infantry; he is in artillery.

Though his notions of military honor are confused, the 28-year-old Watada clearly has a functioning conscience. If the Marine investigators are right about what happened in Haditha, a number of people there suffered a massive failure of conscience that day.

In a preliminary hearing at Fort Lewis last week, Watada's defenders argued that the entire war in Iraq is a crime, so he was simply refusing to follow unlawful orders when he refused to accompany his unit there.

The defense is absurd. Every war this country has fought -- including the Civil War and World War II -- has been criticized by some Americans as illegal, immoral or foolish. That is their right, and there's certainly a mounting case that the Iraq war has been a folly.

But it's not given to soldiers -- especially volunteers like Watada -- to pick and choose their combat assignments. The United States would not have a credible national defense if its troops could individually opt out of wars that didn't meet their personal notions of legality. Opting out is a question for the nation as a whole to decide.

Watada is critical of America's blunders and abuses in Iraq; one of his defense witnesses Thursday, a University of Illinois law professor, cited "pervasive" American crimes against civilians, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

The sporadic acts of U.S. misconduct reported in Iraq hardly add up to "pervasive." Still, they have occurred, and they are exactly why soldiers with consciences -- including the likes of Watada -- are needed on the battlefield. Officers in particular play a critical role as custodians of civilized values when bombs are exploding, order has broken down and enemies are hiding among civilians.

Details now emerging from the Haditha investigation suggests that evidence of the reported massacre was concealed or altered. A company logbook of the Marine unit involved, for example, was reportedly tampered with.

That points to at least a strong possibility of complicity on the part of officers. There was already evidence that Marine officers were reluctant to investigate the episode. These are the very people responsible for clarifying moral expectations, enforcing military law and otherwise preventing 19-year-olds with machine guns from turning into barbarians.

If Watada hadn't lost sight of what he joined the Army to do, he'd be needed in places like Haditha. The military has plenty of officers with a strong sense of moral conduct. It even has troops who don't like this war. Thank goodness they aren't all sitting in the guardhouse, refusing to go.

Ellie