The Wire

Would you go to jail for something you believed in? How about for seven years? That’s the term of imprisonment that First Lt Ehren Watada is facing in the United States. He’s the first commissioner officer to refuse to serve in the Iraq War. When he was called in deploy to Iraq conducted some independent research. He came to the decision that he could not support the war. At the end of this week a military judge will make a recommendation about whether the case should proceed to a court marshal. If it does, Watada’s lawyer intends to argue that the war is illegal and therefore Watada was right. But observers note that Watada’s decision to speak has increased the severity of the sentence he could faced, and ahs placed journalists covering the story under pressure to collaborate with the prosecution. This report begins comments from Lt Watada about his decision not to serve.