Originally Posted by jiro123

lol... i had a good laugh from that reply email. That Lieutenant wants to interpret the constitutionality differently and he's not even a lawyer! If he wants to question the legality of the order - he should be taking it up to his superior or contacting J.A.G. which he did not. Well - looks like he conveniently choose the interpretation of "illegal order" by calling Iraq War as an illegal war thus any orders relating to Iraq War are illegal. "Illegal Order" - exactly what is illegal order? Well I'm sorry but he made a very poor and illed comparison of Iraq War to Nazi... soldiers blindly obeying orders... No no no no no... Why? because the major differences between Iraq War and Nazi War are -

1. Hitler ordered a mass-scale of genocide aka the Holocaust. President Bush did not.
2. Hitler preached to Germany about Aryan Race and blamed Jews, Gypsies, etc. for the demise of Germany. President Bush did not.
3. Hitler invaded whole Europe because he had a vision as the savior of Aryan Race. President Bush did not.
4. Hitler ordered his soldiers to gun down (aka execution) the civilians and prisoners. President Bush did not.

Lastly.... Lt. Watada stated - "The responsibility of an officer is to evaluate the legality and truthfulness behind every order. We cannot blindly accept every order, especially one to go to war, based on faith and what our "political" leaders tell us." I want to correct him right there:

ONE - he and the soldiers are not following every order from the political leaders - plural word. There is only one political man in charge and that is.. the Command-in-Chief - the President of the United States.

TWO - NO HE DOES NOT HAVE ANY RIGHTS TO REFUSE TO GO IRAQ! Do not confuse military with the way of civilian world. But he does have legal rights to disobey the order that is against the Constitution and Geneva Convention. Ordering him to go to Iraq is not a violation of the Constitution and Geneva Convention. GET IT?

THREE - There is an interesting comment by somebody in the link you gave me about the legality of Iraq War. "US forces are currently in Iraq according to mandate by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1637 passed UNANIMOUISLY and considered at the request of the Iraqi government. Our troops are in Iraq in full compliance with both international and domestic law."


one last thing - a response to all of Liebling's posts. It's getting very tiresome. You need to try very hard to separate your emotion & sympathy away from this issue. You have to look at the situation objectively. You need to understand very hard that the lawyers cannot help you at all with the military contract. I highly suggest that you call your lawyer to ask him about the military contract that all civilians have to sign before joining the military and the Stop Loss Policy. I can guarantee you that it is perfectly legal and it's tough luck. Your lawyer will tell you that military contract is not confusing at all like you see on those confusing fineprints on most of contracts that you signed for loans.