On July 6 2006 the us army arrested us army 1st lt ehren watada because he refused to deploy to Iraq as ordered watada feels the us war there is illegal and says he would be willing to serve?

Answer 1

..in Afghanistan. Maybe Watada truly felt like he was doing the right thing, and that the repercussions he would suffer would be worth it. Perhaps it was just plain cowardice. Only he knows for certain.

Some very simple and glaring facts remain. He joined the military voluntarily - nobody forced him to join. In doing so, he signed his name on the dotted line, took his oath, and entered with the understanding that he would be subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It's unlikely he wasn't aware that there would be consequences for refusing to fulfill his duties, and, as much as the anti-war movement likes to call him a hero, the reality of it is that someone simply had to be sent in his place.

I've looked over one these websites called "Courage to Resist", in which the anti-war movement commends every deserter for supposedly being 'heroic'. The truth of it is, while there may be a handful of cases who genuinely did what they did out of standing up for their beliefs, the majority of stories on there practically scream out cowardice. For example, one person had served eight years in the military prior, had a break in service, reenlisted, then deserted. He then made statements about , "this capitalist country", etc. etc, yet it didn't seem to bother him until he found out he was to be deployed? Or the female who deserted her BCT unit a few days before graduation... then turned around and wrote a book.... a book about what, exactly? Well, your guess is as good as mine.

There's a lot of us who've been there and been through the worst of it, who really can't be particularly sympathetic to an officer who left his troops stranded.