My positions are as follows:
1) I am for the soldier, wholeheartedly, but I feel that in joining the military he should have done the research to find out that most major military conflicts of the past 50 years are surruounded by lies, deciet, and innocent death, and that not only our enemies, but we ourselves were guilty of those horrible things. His not seriously looking into his decision is what's wrong with a lot of soldiers, BUT I do understand the incredible effect 9/11 can have on someone, so I can forgive him. I respect deeply his brave move to stand toe to toe with the people responsible for the Iraqi war/massacre.
2) The judge has made many mistakes, one of the most glaring of which was in his excluding expert wheitnesses on the legality of the Iraq war, but at least I understand it. Do you want to be the Army judge that rules so as to create a precedent for legal desertion? Of course not. While the right thing to do for justice was to allow them to speak to the illegality of the war and thus the reasonable decision that Watada, the Amry thing to do is to protect what you think is best for the service. I might disagree with that, but at least I respect it. The problem I have is that he's too inept to do his job properly. I can't remember any cases in which the judge forgot to get the acceptance of the defense on a ruling of a mistrial. It's so stupid that it's unheard of. He botched a trial, and any judge that botches a trial that badly should seriously consider another line of work.
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