Vets Support Lt. Ehren Watada

By Shepherd Bliss

Army Lt. Ehren Watada’s father Bob Watada’s gave full support to his courageous son’s refusal to deploy to Iraq when he spoke Aug. 22 at the Peace and Justice Center. I was glad to be one of the military veterans who heard the dignified, humble father stand up for his son by traveling from their family home in Hawai’i to tell his story.

Lt. Watada is considered brave and patriotic among the veterans’ community of which I am a part. Some local vets were among the hundreds who flanked Lt. Watada when he spoke in August at the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Seattle.

I resigned my Army commission to challenge the Vietnam War. That resignation was probably the most important act of my 62 years; I am so glad that I did not go and support the killing of innocent people in a war that Americans and the world eventually would come to see was unjust, illegal, unwinnable and immoral.

Once again, each individual man or woman in the service is faced with a moral decision with respect to the Iraq War. “I was just following orders” was not a good defense at the Nuremburg Trials and will not hold up in court for the war crime trials that will probably follow the Iraq War.

Regardless of what the Army does to Lt. Watada, he is likely to be the first of more officers who will either refuse deployment to an immoral, illegal war or resign. The Pentagon admits that over 40,000 soldiers have already left the military without permission since the Iraq War began. Over 500,000 left during the Vietnam War.

Many retired generals and other officers have spoken out publicly against the Iraq War, as active duty officers have in private. They do the military and country a great service, at a time when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disgraces our military by leading it to engage in torture, massacres, and war crimes that bring us dishonor.

Two films were shown in Sonoma County the same day that Mr. Watada spoke. The award-winning “Sir! No Sir!” documents GI resistance to the Vietnam War, which helped stop that war. “Homefront” is a new film by Sonoma State Professor Michael Litle about a soldier on leave challenged by a high school girlfriend to follow the example of someone who was honorably discharged in 2004 when he turned in his rifle at the Abu Graib prison. Those films will continue to be shown in the days to come.

Our Veterans’ Writing Group has existed for over a dozen years, meeting in Sonoma County since 1996. Our book “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace,” edited by award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston, will be published by Koa Books in September. It includes nonfiction, poetry, and fiction by 80 veterans. Though the members of our group have a diversity of political views, we support people taking courageous actions based on their consciences, like Lt. Watada has done.

We will launch the book on Sept. 10, Sun., 2-5 as part of a multi-media event on War and Peace at the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa. Ms. Kingston will be among the readers there. We will also have local readings at Copperfield’s Books, Quicksilver Mine Co.,, New College, and Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County. More on our book is available at www.vowvop.org and on Lt. Watada at www.thankyoult.org.

(Shepherd Bliss, [email protected], owns Kokopelli Farm in Sebastopol and has contributed to three anti-war books since 9/11.)