As briefly reported here, "Army prosecutors have added a fourth charge of conduct unbecoming an officer against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a Fort Lewis officer who refused deployment to Iraq because he considers the war to be illegal. The additional charge raises the potential prison sentence from seven to eight years, a Fort Lewis spokesman said. Watada now faces seven charges. The latest resulted from a speech he made Aug. 12 to Veterans for Peace at the University of Washington. Watada said that "to stop an illegal and unjust war, soldiers can choose to stop fighting it." Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek said that the video recording of Watada's speech was introduced at his Article 32 hearing at Fort Lewis last month -- the equivalent of a civilian grand jury hearing. Watada's supporters criticized the charge as gratuitous and said it raises free-speech issues."
Watada just keeps getting himself in deeper and deeper, it seems. You would think that his lawyers would put a gag on him, as well as a short leash, to keep him from bringing even more grief to himself, but apparently his lawyers aren't very aware, when it comes to understanding military law. To protect against sedition, mutiny, and outright treason, military officers are restricted from making any kind of politically motivated speech, and Watada's lawyers just don't seem to grasp that concept, and apparently neither does Watada.
Is the military "making an example" out of Watada? Possibly. If so, they couldn't have picked a better example to hold up to the rest of the officer corps as to what not to do.
Watada's actions and statements are leading him down the wrong path, and the end of his journey will not be pleasant for him, which in this writers opinion will be a good thing. We are at war, and we do not need people like Watada populating our officer corps, potentially corrupting it.
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