Watada: Guilty
By Rick Anderson
Monday, Feb. 5 2007 @ 8:04AM
That will be the headline in the next few days or whenever a panel rules in the Army's Fort Lewis court martial of Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada knows that and the Army knows that and, despite what you might hear from supporters, protesters and the media, everyone should know that. Watada says he'll go to Afghanistan, just not the illegal battleground in Iraq, but an officer can't pick his wars. He'll get a fair trial, by military standards, then they'll convict him. He'll wind up in the Fort Lewis stockade like Sgt. Kevin Benderman, who, as we earlier reported, has already fought this battle and lost. The difference of course is that more people understand the battle now, and Watada's show trial, even if its most immediate outcome is to keep the cableheads talking, will be heard by a much larger jury. George W. Bush's war has been shown to be the lie many knew it to be long before March, 2003. But only a majority of House Democrats rose to be counted then. Today, even soldiers in Baghdad are piping up. Joe Hooper, the kid out of Moses Lake who became a Medal of Honor winner and the most-decorated solider in Vietnam, told me that when he was asked if he'd do it again, he'd say, "I would, the reason being I thought my abilities helped save lives. But I would tell my children, if [we] were to do this over, 'Go to Canada. Dont fight a war you cant win.'" Though Watada has chosen a different path, I suspect the late Joe Hooper - seeing Vietnam repeated today - might stand with him.
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