Questions of conscience

Re “An Iraq war all his own,” Column One, Feb. 5

Do we remember after World War II and during the Nuremburg trials, the many discussions and legal rulings regarding personal morality? How the excuses made by those who were forced to perform hideous and inhuman acts in order to save their own lives were considered invalid? And again after Vietnam, when details of unspeakable crimes were revealed, the discussions that followed all agreed that no person should have to obey commands that are obviously immoral, illegal or against his deeply held beliefs.

Now we have, in 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, an educated, intelligent, exemplary officer who has clearly wrestled long and hard with his conscience and responsibly offered to resign or serve elsewhere. Yet he is to be put on trial for refusing to fight and kill in a war known to be based on deceit. For the Army prosecutor or anyone else to call his actions “dishonorable” and “disgraceful” is disgusting, and the court-martial adds just one more shameful action to the sad legacy of the worst administration we’ve ever known.

ELEANOR JACKSON

Palm Springs

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I protested the Vietnam War as a college student. I respect Watada’s stand against the Iraq war. He is sacrificing his career and subjecting himself to prison, as compared with a group of spineless generals who voiced opposition after they had retired with their ranks and military pensions intact.

However, I support the Army’s prosecution of Watada, even though I am against this war. He wasn’t drafted against his will, and when he enlisted, he signed a contract to abide by the Army’s rules.

HENRY SAKAIDA

Temple City

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Watada embodies the opinion of a majority of Americans, which is to take appropriate measures to end the immoral war that the Bush administration started. The war was based on faulty intelligence, and so far it has taken lives of more than 3,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The war is neither helping our image in the world nor helping to build a democracy in Iraq. The U.S. should end the occupation now.

IRAM LATIF

Downey

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Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

Perhaps if the members of Congress had researched the history of Iraq and the reasons we were given for going to war, as Watada did, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today. This man is a thoughtful, responsible and courageous leader. I will tell my children his story.

ANNA PETRAKIS

Newbury Park

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As much you want to elicit sympathy for Watada, he isn’t going to get it any from me.

WILLIAM BERGER

U.S. Navy, retired

Ventura