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just b/c Susan Sarandon said 600K doesn't make it accurate.

The guy should and will be courtmartialed

(Msg. 357) pitdogK9P wrote:
I suggest that you go to the following site www.strykernews.com. Soldiers and imbedded reporters reporting from Iraq do the writing not the correspondents who can't push themslves away from the bar long enough to go outside the "Green Zone".

(Msg. 365) stone429 wrote:
You know this because you have had multiple classes on this and it is reviewed with you at least once a year. Whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not is irrevilent, you made a committement.

(Msg. 365) stone429 also wrote:
... where singers, songwriters, and everybody except the warriors feel the need to speak out from what - not experience but opinion.

(Msg. 365) stone429 also wrote:
It is heart wrenching to think that men you have held while they are dying and people with limbs shot off will always be remembered as dupes in an action you did not approve of.

About Lt. Ehren Watada

1st Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai`i. He was an exemplary Eagle Scout by age 15.

Lt. Watada worked while attending Hawai`i Pacific University, where he earned a degree in Finance and graduated magna cum laude in 2003. He received no financial assistance from the Army for his education.

Friends and family consider him a born leader and were not surprised by his determination to pursue a military career immediately upon graduation in a post 9/11 era. He enlisted in the Army as an officer candidate and was stationed in Korea from late 2004 to early 2005, where his superior officers evaluated and described him as "Exemplary," with "Unlimited Potential" and "Likes challenges and moves toward the fight."

In early 2005, Lt. Watada was re-assigned from Korea to Ft. Lewis, Washington. Knowing that he would be expected to lead his soldiers into Iraq, he undertook to learn all that he could about the war and what he and those he commanded would likely face. Lt. Watada read widely and researched how and why the Iraq War began and the evidence that was presented to convince the U.S. Congress to approve the war. After a year of study and reflection, Lt. Watada came to the courageous decision to refuse deployment to Iraq.

Lt. Watada's parents have both expressed their support for their son's actions and have traveled the country to speak on his behalf His mother, Carolyn Ho of Kaneohe, Hawai`i, is a high school guidance counselor. His father, Bob Watada of Honolulu, Hawai`i is the former Executive Director of the State Campaign Spending Commission of Hawai`i.

Lt. Watada is assigned to administrative duty at Ft. Lewis pending his court martial on February 5, 2007.

February 7, 2007

An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks
The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg
By TONY SWINDELL

Crimes Listed by the Nuremberg Standard of 1947: a war of aggression,
or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for its
accomplishment; murder or ill-treatment of civilian populations in
occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war;
plunder of public or private property; wanton destruction of cities,
towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;
crimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, enslavement,
deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian
population, before or during the war.

Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah, the rape of Lebanon, the concentration
camps in the West Bank and Gaza, clandestine prisons, the Iraq embargo
of the 1990s, Halliburton, and Black Water. There are more, but these
will suffice to compare against the Nuremberg Standard. It will not be
a difficult task. For example, start with Halliburton and the plunder
of public (American taxpayers') property.

How many of you recognize the name of Army Warrant Officer Hugh
Thompson, Jr.?

I do because he and I stood on and flew over the same ground nearly 40
years ago. Like him, I left a little blood and a lot of sweat in a
Godforsaken place halfway around the world, earning four battle stars
in 11 months. Plus some cheap tin and ribbon medals made even cheaper
by the good friends who never came home with me. Thompson did, too.

Hugh was a helicopter pilot who aimed his guns at American soldiers--
members of my brigade -- to keep them from slaughtering civilians in
the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai 4. Spotting massacred civilians around
My Lai, Thompson and his two-man crew landed beside wounded civilians
to give medical help as the infantry company commander and others
present kept shooting the wounded. Thompson ordered his crew to open
fire if the slaughter continued. No more civilians were shot.

Thompson's story is critical because the march to a nuclear war
against Iran has begun, and YOU will the ones carrying it out. There
is no way to effectively "confront" Iran except with tactical nuclear
weapons. Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children will
die outright or suffer lingering deaths from horrible radiation
sicknesses. It will be murder, pure and simple. Look at the suffering
around you and multiply it by hundreds.

No doubt you know that back home, 80 per cent of the American people
voted in the last election to end the Iraq debacle, but no one in
Washington listened. Our two-faced media watchdogs are a gaggle of
neocon propaganda peddlers, corporate whores and New World Order
shills who helped orchestrate and cheerlead the slaughter, and they
sneer at your patriotism behind your backs.

Everything you've been told about Iraq is a pack of lies, and the
powers that be seem to think we're all stupid enough to be conned
again. We can't trust our elected representatives to carry out the
will of the people. They're been bought and sold, and have just proven
it. For all practical purposes, a coup d'etat has taken place.

Meanwhile, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have problems of their own
just staying alive. After four years, why doesn't everyone have the
equipment and armored vehicles needed? The most cynical thing our
government can do is to send its soldiers into combat with defective
weapons or lacking critical equipment. To me, actions speak a lot
louder than words. Just ask the folks who lost everything to Hurricane
Katrina down along the Gulf Coast.

Keep in mind that defense contractors like Halliburton are raking in
billions, and the 100-grand-per-year hired guns and their employers
certainly aren't lacking anything they need. Take a close look at
their equipment. Whether you realize it or not, these hired guns are
making your job a lot harder by terrorizing and humiliating the Iraqi
population, accountable to no one. I've seen it all before, only with
more humidity and less sand.

Let me tell you a little secret about the plan to parcel you out in
small groups and isolate you in Iraqi units. This was tried in Vietnam
with disastrous results, with adjectives like suicidal. And that was
before we had really gotten serious about killing people over there.
How can you tell who the enemy is? Do you speak the Iraqi language and
understand the culture? That friendly Iraqi kid or little girl in a
burka may be taking reams of mental notes about your unit strength,
equipment, and movement patterns to relay to their big brothers with
the IEDs, RPGs and AKs. They may even be humping bags of ammo or
ordnance and running commo for insurgents.

Count your fingers for the number of new insurgents every dead
civilian creates. Rape a girl and murder her family to cover it up,
and you'll need a computer. Don't forget to factor in the damage from
50,000 armed-to-the-teeth mercenaries, many of whom not only don't
speak Iraqi, they don't even speak English. Always remember that none
of these people invited you there to blow their country apart. Imagine
how you'd feel if some friendly invaders and a bunch of their salaried
thugs had wasted New York City and killed the entire population.

I can tell you from experience that it's impossible to win any kind of
guerilla war without the support of the population and while
soldiering from a defensive position. Have your missions turned from
search and clear to search and avoid like ours did? Do you have a
mentality of "the day is yours, the night is theirs"? If that's true,
the situation has disintegrated into a war of attrition and you've
lost.

Put aside from the moral conundrum of nuking a non-nuke country that
has signed the non-proliferation treaty to keep that country from
maybe getting nukes of its own, and all on behalf of another country
that already has hundreds of nukes and refuses to sign any such
treaties. An attack on Iran means you will be trapped between a rock
and a hard place. Make no mistake: the real reason for the "surge"
into Bagdad is to reinforce security around the laptop warriors and
bureaucrats in the Green Zone. You'll find yourselves in the curious
position of playing bodyguard for the hired guns. How ironic will that
be?

Think about your families and loved ones. A large number of you are
serving multiple tours, with many involuntarily extended. For the
latter, your country has violated the contract it signed with you, but
just try breaking your end of it. Meanwhile, military families suffer
at home, a significant number of you will not have jobs to return to,
and unbelievably, your government is doing its best to slash or delay
veteran's benefits. For those of you who come home wounded, it will
take years to get a VA disability claim processed if you succeed at
all.

Are your families are living near the poverty level? Look at how many
payday loan shark operations hover like vultures around stateside
military posts. The bottom line is that you and your loved ones are
suffering all the blood and material sacrifices while White House and
Congressional cronies get unspeakably rich. And, you're being asked to
do it over and over again by people who are willing to spill every
drop of your blood while making sure their own children avoid wearing
a uniform.

To say that combat veterans--or anyone -- who oppose these wars are
against you is an outright lie. We would stand shoulder-to-shoulder
with you to defend our country and protect our Constitution. We want
Osama bin Laden and his cohorts dead as much as you do. Our hearts
break when another coffin comes home, or a young man or woman returns
physically or psychologically crippled. We have personally seen and
felt this pain for 30 years or more. We are outraged that it's
happening all over again, and for what?

Our anger is directed at the people who have cynically exploited your
patriotism and love of America, people who seem to owe their
allegiance to another country, people who have been using our
Constitution as toilet paper. Turn your bullshit detectors up to full
volume like we have. Open your eyes and discover what true courage is.
It's not just facing another man in combat, it's also standing up for
what's right.

Be forewarned and forearmed: the dogs of war never confront a man's
intellectual or moral compass, but only his body and his emotions.
They count on your blind obedience to authority. These people are not
armed with superior knowledge or competence. They have nothing but a
monopoly on violence and coercion, and a talent for exploiting our
ignorance and timidity. All of us were born free men and women, and
it's time to once again begin living like we are. It's time to show
the government where real strength of the American people lies.

The bottom line is, if you don't think an ordinary soldier like
yourself can do anything about the situation, you're dead wrong.
Remember the story of Hugh Thompson. When the same dogs of war start
barking, you start biting like he did. You do it with two simple
questions to each officer and NCO, and ask it repeatedly: "With all
due respect, sir, why are we still here and when are we going home?"

You don't give up your Constitutional rights when you put on the
uniform, because the defense of the Constitution is at the core of
your solemn oath to serve. Anyone who orders you to give up your
morality and humanity should be hung. My fervent prayer is that a
brigade of Hugh Thompsons like you will rise up to put a halt to this
coming atrocity.

Tony Swindell can be reached at: phoenixtexoma@550access.com

The CEASE FIRE from the 1990/91 Gulf War was repeatedlyviolated, and it was still getting violated by Iraq. That alone made the resuming of hostilities appropriate under international law. Basicly ever time Iraq fired at a US aircraft, they invited invasion.

We typically responded to having the aircraft fired upon by taking out the missile launchers. Thats not a violation of the cease fire, since they fired first, but since they fiored first we had no obligation to stop at taking out the missile launchers.

So, the suspicion of WMD simply was the last straw in a long string of provocations, and the cease fire was considered void.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.