The Lincoln Log

After attending an anti-war rally in Jan., I was informed of a soldier who was refusing to fight. This is very rare in our country so I decided to find out a little more. I went to the Women’s Building in the Mission District the next day to learn a little more from the soldiers mother and an intense film about Iraq.

Lieutenant Ehren Watada went to trial on Feb. 5 2007 for refusing deployment to Iraq. Watada is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the war in Iraq and he could be put in prison for four years.

Watada has publicly spoken out against the war after researching what soldiers were ordered to do in Iraq. Watada concluded that soldiers were being ordered to participate in war crimes. These war crimes include dispersing cluster bombs in fields where children play. If you didn’t know, cluster bombs are bombs that once blown up, spread a bunch of smaller bombs that are slightly larger than a fist. Cluster bombs also happen to be a weapon that is illegal to use in war.

In the documentary “Little Birds” filmed and directed by the renowned Japanese film maker Watai Takeharu, Iraqi families’ stories are told.

“What the Iraqi people are seeing and feeling is a very important issue. We (both want people to) please understand the Iraq people’s situation,” Takeharu said.

The movie shows a man who lost three of his children and all of his hope. We see a young man who lost his arm because he touched a cluster bomb, not knowing what is was, and it exploded in his hand. This same young man is now a reject amongst his family and friends. We see a little girl who had to get eye surgery because a bomb exploded in her house and debris flew into her eye. We see hundreds of children dying because of buildings exploding on top of their bodies and adults suffering because debris is jammed into their skin and there is absolutely no way to get the debris out.

Watada researched all this suffering of the Iraqi people before he was ordered to go to the Middle-East. Watada argues that this is not the liberation President Bush has promised the Iraqi people. Instead, Watada feels that crimes against humanity are being committed and the troops should leave Iraq. Watada has said that he did not want to be another brainwashed soldier who just is a killing machine and does what they are ordered no matter how immoral it is. Watada hopes soldiers will fulfill their oath of allegiance to the constitution and not follow orders that are illegal.

Watada’s wishes were told to the audience watching “Little Birds” by Watada’s mother Carolyn Ho, who has been going all over the country spreading Watada’s message with the support of Hollywood stars such as Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

“This isn’t a matter of ending the war, this is a matter of one’s conscience,” Ho said. “Ehren is not going to be another soldier who doesn’t use their conscience and just takes orders. He is not going to cooperate with orders that are immoral. Because Ehren is doing this, we all must make a conscious decision and wonder if this war is unjust. If you think it is, then you must act because while we all think about what is going on in Iraq, innocent people are dying and waiting for someone to take action, to get the troops out of Iraq. We must act now.”

If you would like more information on Watada’s court martial or if you would like to support his cause, visit www.thankyoult.org.