Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

[GypsyLika]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

hahahhaaaaa~!

i am less than 2 miles from your public housing project and when the economy collapses and the riots start later this year,i and a few of my buds will visit your slums to exterminate your kind with our sig sauer p226s and sks assault rifles and mossberg 12 gauges.it will be my pleasure and fun as hell to rid lowlife slugs like you.
its just natural evolution and darwins law what is going to happen.

THIS sounds like a "terroristic threat" ~ correct me if I'm wrong.

"Exterminate" hello has Hitler risen from the dead, oh I'm sorry he never died cause he never existed.

[damontucker]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Ok... I bite..

I never like...but sheesh... I'm to connected to the military...although I hate the fact that we as a planet have to fight amongst eachother...

the guy get balls...

I have too many family members that have served... from the WWII... my grandfather 1942 - 1945 http://hml.org/mmhc/mdindex/rowe.html

believe it or not he was a big part of history over there during WWII... could go into...but no one would believe.... no worries... i get the old newspaper clippings stored away for my son's show and tell when he get's older....! frick he was actually captured...then fought his way out of Normandy and brought out POW's!

to my current family and friends that still fight for America.

I think it's very admirable for standing up for your beliefs...and believe me... I don't agree with the war...

However, the guy enlisted way after all the 911 stuff was going....

You reap what you sow... he enlisted... follow your orders LT. Watada

[MadAzza]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

You (unfortunately) are guaranteed the right of free speech.

Sweetie, this is a common misinterpretation of the First Amendment. Not all "speech" is protected. For example, terroristic threatening isn't protected.

[admin]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Sweetie, this is a common misinterpretation of the First Amendment. Not all "speech" is protected. For example, terroristic threatening isn't protected.

Indeed. Largely incoherent but mildly entertaining, Boowa has received several warnings for all manner of inappropriate posts but given ample opportunity to rise above "troll." He/she has chosen not to, however, and indeed direct threats are intolerable.

Apologies for not acting sooner on this specific series of posts. (Feel free to PM me if you think something's flown under my radar, as I don't always dissect every thread!) Boowa has been banned, the IP logged, and from here forward I hope he/she prompts no further comment.

[scrivener]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

However, the guy enlisted way after all the 911 stuff was going....You reap what you sow... he enlisted... follow your orders LT. Watada

Perhaps, but the federal government didn't come clean about its faulty intelligence until just last year. A lot of people who once supported this war have since decided, in light of some of the stuff that the government has admitted to, that we were wrong all along. I've made it clear in other threads that I thought this war was wrong from the very beginning; Lt. Watada obviously disagreed then but agrees now. To expect a man to go against his conscience because he believed lies told to him by his own government is not "reaping what you sow," it's being led to committing illegal war.

[damontucker]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Perhaps, but the federal government didn't come clean about its faulty intelligence until just last year. A lot of people who once supported this war have since decided, in light of some of the stuff that the government has admitted to, that we were wrong all along. I've made it clear in other threads that I thought this war was wrong from the very beginning; Lt. Watada obviously disagreed then but agrees now. To expect a man to go against his conscience because he believed lies told to him by his own government is not "reaping what you sow," it's being led to committing illegal war.

Ouch scriv-

I'll leave it at that...

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Please correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm going based on what my wife said. So this Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant originally supported the war and backed it for 4 and a half years, watched his local peers in the military head to Iraq and Afghanistan
all this time, then suddenly HE and his troops are called up for the first time to head over there and now he no longer supports the war??

I have been 110% against this war from the get go, and this fellow certainly has a right to change his mind, but what I question above everything else is his coincidental timing.

KalihiBoy

[scrivener]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

I have a few things to say here. First, if I understand the story correctly, this man was not against war in general, or even against all of the wars we're currently involved in. As someone else here has mentioned, if he'd been deployed to Afghanistan, he says he would have gone. What I think is important to understand is that what we're doing in Afghanistan is not the same as what we're doing in Iran. Remember, we went into Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. We didn't move into Iraq until the spring of 2003. For the first couple of years of that Iraq war, we were told a lot of things that the government admits may not have been true.

Manoasurfer, you mention 9/11, but the Iraq war has nothing to do with 9/11. In the spring of 2003, it was all about weapons of mass destruction. General Powell went before the United Nations and testified that he was absolutely certain that Iraq had these weapons. Personally, I don't think that's a good enough reason to go to war, but I can certainly understand that people might. Well, we went in there, and there were no weapons of mass destruction. Then our government admits that it had "faulty intelligence." That's doublespeak for "we were wrong."

I'm totally sincere when I ask this question: Does it really not make sense that a member of our military, dedicated to protecting the country, agrees to serve but draws the line at what many people consider an illegal war? This man is not saying he doesn't want to go to war; he is saying THIS war is not right. If you take a job and agree to do it for pay for several years, then your boss gives you orders to do something that is against the company's own policies AND is illegal, are you a wimp for saying, "I draw the line HERE?"

The timing is not "coincidental." Wanting not to fight this war in Iraq does not mean one does not want to serve his country. We should not expect a "my country, right or wrong" attitude from the men who agree to defend our nation against harm--that's what we expect from fanatical, militant nations who expect loyalty no matter what. We're not supposed to be one of them. Iraq is not a threat to our nation's safety, and as far as we can tell, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. In the absence of weapons of mass destruction, what are we doing there?

[1stwahine]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

I hate War! I especially hate the conflict in Iraq. I remember my nightmares and coldsweats so vividly...having my son and daughter there the same time. It wasn't easy.

The pains and sufferings is felt across our great Nation evey single day and night 24/7. It's been felt many a times through-out history. I am not the first. I am not the last.

My personal feelings doesn't matter. The stories of soldiers coming back is all the same. Stories of rebuilding a country that was torn and shattered by a man who robbed his people of dignity and LIFE itself. For once they are knowing what is Freedom. Of course, there are problems. Freedom isn't cheap.

Schools, Hospitals, roads, etc. are being built. Children going back to school and receiving education. Medical and other supplies being brought back to places where it was never even known.

Yes, History will have the last say on who was right and who was wrong. Many mistakes were made. No one is perfect. Life is not perfect. The fact remains, we are there. Many of our men and women have already lost their precious lives. Pack up and leave like Vietnam? I think not. Not this time.

In closing.

"We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have, of which we should be eternally grateful.

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free."

Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops


My Hero, My Life, My SON.

My daughters and son-inlaw too.
and to all our Men and Women of our Armed Forces
Past and Present!

Mahalo for serving our country!

www.forest.ws/WeSupportU.htm

Auntie Lynn

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

hahahhaaaaa~!

i am less than 2 miles from your public housing project and when the economy collapses and the riots start later this year,i and a few of my buds will visit your slums to exterminate your kind with our sig sauer p226s and sks assault rifles and mossberg 12 gauges.it will be my pleasure and fun as hell to rid lowlife slugs like you.
its just natural evolution and darwins law what is going to happen.

Booboo, you are being an ass.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

About this soldier...it seems to me that he is being as professional as he can be, as an officer of the armed forces. He didn't go up to Canada, just to be awarded amnesty later (neither did his Dad). He's going the legal route, in order to be heard, respected.

[scrivener]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Yes, History will have the last say on who was right and who was wrong. Many mistakes were made. No one is perfect. Life is not perfect. The fact remains, we are there. Many of our men and women have already lost their precious lives. Pack up and leave like Vietnam? I think not. Not this time.

Lynn, this is my point, too. We seem to agree that we just don't KNOW if we're right or wrong. With all these American lives at stake, don't we owe it to the men and women we send over there to KNOW that they're dying for the RIGHT reasons? If we don't KNOW, we shouldn't toss them in there, hoping that history will prove us right. In any case, the uncertainty itself indicates that our own fighting men and women should be allowed some leeway: rather than condemn Lt. Watada for his feelings, we should respect them and allow him to serve his country some other way, don't you think?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

With respect to Watada, he's not a CO since only objects to this particular war...Although I suppose one could join the military and then discover one's beliefs are such that one is actually a CO.

Correct on both counts, Adri.

[Miulang]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

As I said previously, it would not make any sense to force Lt. Watada to deploy to Iraq at this point, because even if he did go (rather than face court martial and imprisonment), now that he has made his beliefs known to his unit, I think he would be in mortal danger from friendly fire. From what a friend told me about being in the war in Vietnam, anytime someone in a unit was unpopular, rather than protecting each other, "accidents" against the person who was disliked were the norm, which resulted in that person being killed or injured and removed from the unit. I, for one, would not want to see another soldier killed on the battlefield by the same people who are supposed to be his "friends".

Miulang

P.S. Lt. Watada's father has told KITV that his son has received death threats. At the news conference the other day, Lt. Watada did mention that there was tension on base. I hope the FBI catches the SOBs who are standing in the way of Lt. Watada's being able voice his opinions and to face due process of the law.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Iraq War Called Illegal by Hawai‘i Army Lieutenant

Does it really not make sense that a member of our military, dedicated to protecting the country, agrees to serve but draws the line at what many people consider an illegal war? This man is not saying he doesn't want to go to war; he is saying THIS war is not right.

Zing! When scrivener chooses to draw back his bow, his arrows consistently go to the center of the target, the heart of the matter. Mahalo.