End the Watada case, discharge him

QUESTIONS for the U.S. Army to ponder about 1st Lt. Ehren Watada have less to do with his loyalties than his judgment. He should not be in uniform.

Now is the time to part company. Use the opportunity created by the U.S. Justice Department's decision not to pursue a second court-martial for his 2006 refusal to join his Stryker Brigade in Iraq. Most likely, that was for the best.

Watada considered the war to be illegal, and concluded that participation might make him a war criminal. His first court-martial ended in a mistrial over the meaning and content of a pretrial agreement.

A U.S. District Court Judge in Tacoma subsequently ruled that a second trail constituted double jeopardy. The Obama Justice Department later asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to withdraw a pending appeal, and the court agreed on Wednesday.

Watada remains in legal trouble because of media interviews in which he attacked President Bush and said the president's behavior made him ashamed to wear the uniform.

Here is one of those conundrums of a free society. The finest traditions of the military have protected the rule of law that served Watada so well. His ability to articulate concern for his own prerogatives does not make him a fit leader of men and women willing to venture into harm's way.

Cut Watada loose. Give him a general discharge for that catchall: unsuitability. Or make it an administrative discharge.

Any discharge with a stronger adjective such as dishonorable or bad requires more legal effort than this case deserves.

Watada got into the wrong line of work. He would leave the military neither disgraced nor celebrated, but a beneficiary of a system that played by the rules.

Wrap it up, move on.