Emotions run high on Watada

To Rich McConchie, who served 25 years in the U.S. Army, Iraq war resister Ehren Watada is not only right, he's an inspiration.

"If I'd had more than a ninth-grade education, I'd have disobeyed just like him," says McConchie, a command sergeant major from Blaine who served two tours in Vietnam. To George Humphrey, a former Army combat arms officer, Watada is not only wrong, he's upended a principle that goes back to the country's founding — that the military stay out of politics.

"We do not make foreign policy, and we should never be allowed to," Humphrey said.

More than 400 readers e-mailed or called last week after I wrote about the Fort Lewis court-martial of 1st Lt. Watada. What was striking wasn't so much the volume but the diversity of the debate.

Especially within the military. A hundred current or former members of the armed services were all over the map. About the legitimacy of Watada's case. The limits of conscience. And my view that Watada, as an officer, had gone too far in calling for soldiers to peacefully mutiny against elected officials, who he says have "become the enemy."

It's true soldiers have a duty to disobey specific unlawful orders. But many in the military said Watada has blurred that with the political question of whether the country should have gone to war at all.

"Bravo Zulu for understanding what most civvies don't — that the military exists to follow the orders of the civilian government," wrote Aaron Shuman, a Marine sergeant.

Jay Choe of Sammamish said he saw how bad it can get when a "military elite insists its values on civilians." He was in the South Korean Army before moving here in 1985.

"I lived through military dictatorship, and I regret I was a part of it," he wrote.

But some said the U.S. military has long been politicized. Watada is casting a lone anti-war vote for good reason.

"You're right that if officers stand up and refuse to participate in wars ... then the military doesn't work," wrote Seattle's Ted Granger. "That is precisely why military personnel are obligated to stand up for their beliefs, so the military CAN'T be depended upon to blindly follow and fight the illegal wars of misguided, or criminal, civilian leaders."

Granger was an Army engineer in Thailand during the Vietnam War. He says he saw how that war was built on lies. For four decades, he has felt guilty that he didn't say anything.

"I was too lazy and comfortable to make any waves. Watada has the courage I lacked, so I admire him greatly."

I also got eyefuls about the Iraq war from those who are fighting it. Watada is hardly alone among soldiers saying the war was a mistake. Yet there's a strong sense of "we broke it, we ought to fix it."

I'll repeat: Whether we do that by staying or going is not up to the military. It's up to us.

So given that, what were our elected leaders doing as you raged this debate in my inbox? They debated whether to even have a debate on Iraq.

Pathetic. I have mixed feelings about Watada's stand in the military. But we could sure use more like him in Congress.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.