So The Nation has an angle on the Watada mistrial I hadn't heard yet. The good part:

Watada maintained that his refusal to participate in an illegal war in Iraq was justified, indeed required, under the Army's own Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under Judge Head's rulings, however, there simply would be no way for a soldier to resist an illegal order. Indeed, an American military person could be ordered to commit mass murder or genocide and then be denied the right even to make a case for the lawfulness of his actions. The judge's rulings fly in the face of the Supreme Court's Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision, which stood for the principle that all US officials are bound by national and international law not to commit war crimes. Read more…

Round one ends in mistrial. You've probably heard- Watada's defense hasn't been allowed to present a large portion of what they need to prove that he was acting as an honorable soldier, and defending his country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He has the balls to put his whole life on the line here, and we should respect his sacrifice. It's a valuable as those being made in Iraq.

FORT LEWIS -- The court-martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada ended in a mistrial Wednesday.

The case's judge, Lt. Col. John Head, declared the trial over after a day of wrangling over a stipulation of facts that Watada had signed before the trial and that would have been part of the instructions to the jury. The judge decided that Watada never intended when he signed the stipulation to mean that he had a duty to go to Iraq with his unit.

Again the issue was Watada's views on the Iraq war -- opinions that kept him from going with his unit to the conflict and that the judge didn't want brought up at the court-martial. Read more…

Fellow Blogger, would you appear before a military tribunal? Christ. Good on truthout for standing up for their rights. Go listen to the whole thing. Spooky. The good news: the christianistfascits are worried about bloggers if they are taking this kind of action against them. Read more…

Here's to hoping lots more join him. Everyone should respect this man, it's incredibly difficult to stand up to "lawful" orders like this and win- in particular when you're an officer. And, if I may boldly assert that I can tell, why is it so many objectors seem to be people of color?

Lieutenant defies Army over ‘illegal’ war

By William Cole
The Honolulu Advertiser
In one of the first known cases of its kind, an Army officer from Honolulu is expected to refuse to go to Iraq this month with his unit, citing what he calls the “illegal” and “immoral” basis of the war, his father confirmed.

The officer, 1st Lt. Ehren K. Watada, 28, son of former state campaign spending commission executive director Bob Watada, is believed to be one of the first military officers to publicly take steps to refuse his deployment orders. Read more…