Thank You Lt. Ehren Watada: West Point Graduates Against the War

[Jcrowley]

West Point Graduates Against the War

Dear Lieutenant Ehren Watada: We are pleased to write to you to express our profound respect and gratitude for your refusal to participate in the illegal war in Iraq. We stand with you regarding the illegality of the orders issued to you and fully support your exercising your conscientious duty to refuse to obey them.

As graduates of the United States Military Academy and former officers in the armed forces of this nation we are enormously encouraged by your example. We too have served our country during war and during peace and we agree with your honorable and courageous decision. Your refusal to fight this illegal war in Iraq has heartened us. It is our hope that your example will encourage others to re-examine their own principles of truth, personal honor and the rule of law that are the founding precepts of our democracy, and act as their consciences dictate as you did.


Instilled by the Cadet Honor System with a fundamental, longstanding respect for truth, we believe that honor is a basic attribute of character, a requisite for leading the men and women of our country. We are appalled by the deceitful behavior of the government of the United States. The lying, evasions and quibbling has demeaned not only those who utter them and the United States of America, but has placed vast numbers of innocent people in deadly peril. We will not serve these lies and deceits, nor should you.

The last article of the Code of Conduct for the American Fighting Man states "I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions and dedicated to the principles which made my country free." Your decision illustrates the broadness of scope of an officer’s responsibility and highlights the difference between an American servicemember and any other. We share your desire to elevate mere obedience to orders to a higher duty, one unequivocally declared at Nuremburg, in the Geneva Convention and by the United Nations Charter.

Like you, we academy graduates swore to support and defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We also swore to bear true faith and allegiance to the same Constitution. The illegal policies of the current administration have resulted in a war catastrophic to our nation's interests: politically, economically, militarily, and morally. We now stand to protect our nation from these deceptions. We seek justice for all victims of this illegal war, both servicemen and servicewomen, and the citizens of Iraq, and we support you in your quest for justice.

http://thankyoult.live.radicaldesigns.org/content/view/180/42/

[133724]

1. K&R

[Peace Patriot]

2. See the West Point Grads against the Iraq War web site!

http://www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org/

The letter to Lt. Watada above ends as follows:

"To this purpose we invoke the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence whereby we too 'mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, & our sacred Honor.'"

The site explains why:

From the cadet honor code: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do."

And, above this, the web page says:

"Weaons of mass destruction -- LIE!"
"Saddam linked with 9/11 -- LIE!"
"'We don't torture' --LIE!"

This page also has some excellent quotes by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (1953-1961):

----

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war." (2)

----

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing." (3)

----

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion." (4)

----

"If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government." (5)

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Eisenhower Citations:

1. Letter to Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, then USMA Superintendent.
    http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1983/40768/docs/taylor.html
2. Press conference: 1953.
3. Speech: Ottawa, Canada, January 10, 1946.
4. Speech: New York City, May 31, 1954.
5. As president of Columbia University, speech to luncheon clubs, Galveston, Texas, December 8, 1949

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[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Those Eisenhower quotes --

they just don't make Republicans like they used to.

[AspenRose]

6. Probably why President Eisenhower's son supported Kerry in the last

election.

[porphyrian]

4. I'll kick that. - n/t

[babydollhead]

5. good

[Raffi Ella]

7. K&R

:kick:

[indepat]

8. Well at least one honorable gentleman and officer has been identified and I'm sure

there are at least a few others. But I wonder how many officers and gentlemen have not lived up to the Cadet Honor System, how many have forgotten/not observed the last article of the Code of Conduct for the American Fighting Man to elevate mere obedience to orders to a higher duty, one unequivocally declared at Nuremberg, in the Geneva Convention and by the United Nations Charter for which the architects of this pre-emptive war are also bound.

[Karenina]

9. K&R

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. How wonderful.

[BuyingThyme]

11. :woohoo: :applause:

:woohoo: :applause:

[malaise]

12. Love this

K & R