Watada's Catch-22

Among those testifying today at Lt. Ehren Watada's Fort Lewis court martial was Lt. Col. Bruce Antonia, Watada's former commander, who may have unintentionally scored a small point for Watada. From Adam Lynn's News Tribune update:

Watada's civilian defense attorney, Eric Seitz of Honolulu, asked Antonia what he would expect a junior officer should do if he received an unlawful order.  "I would expect him not to obey, if the order was illegal," Antonia said.

The battalion commander then asked to clarify his statement. "First of all, [the order] would have to be criminal," Antonia said. "Criminally illegal, if you want to say it that way. Second of all, the chain of command is there to resolve those issues. [If] the chain of command looks at it and decides that it is a lawful order, then I'd expect him to follow that order."

Watada's main point, of course, is that George Bush's order was indeed illegal. Unfortunately, if he were to appeal the "issue" all the way up the chain of command, he'd run into the Commander In Chief who gave the order. Oh well. As Joe Heller wrote in Catch-22, "The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."