I Commend You, Lt. Watada

“I (insert name), having been appointed a (insert rank) in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.”

This is the oath that Lieutenant Ehren Watada took when he joined the ARMY in 2003. The purpose of his mission was to protect our country against a country with weapons of mass destruction, a country that harbored terrorists and linked to al-Qaeda, a country that was looking to cause us harm. Lt. Watada went into the ARMY based on the principles of protecting our Constitution; protecting our rights to freedom.

Our President and our government built a façade based on illusions and lies.

“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.” President G.W. Bush (This is a bold faced lie considering the Defense Intelligence Agency that conducted the examination of the labs determined that they were probably used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Why didn’t the President mention that?)

"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the 'beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed." President G.W. Bush (Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t this suggest a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda?)

“Saddam Hussein had a lengthy history of reckless and sudden aggression. He cultivated ties to terror -- hosting the Abu Nidal organization, supporting terrorists, and making payments to the families of suicide bombers. He also had an established relationship with al Qaeda -- providing training to al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases and conventional bombs. He built, possessed, and used weapons of mass destruction. And he refused or evaded all international demands to account for those weapons.” Dick Cheney (Hmmm. Let’s think about this one. The U.S. Intelligence community argued over conflicting evidence of an operational relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, thus never acknowledging truth to this. Another misleading example.)

These are only three out of thousands of statements made by the President and the Vice President to our nation and convincing hundreds of thousands of Americans that we did the right thing by invading Iraq. These statements are what caused Lt. Watada to enlist. However, most of those statements in reference to al Qaeda and/or Iraq were false:

“Because of the gravity of the subject and the President’s unique access to classified information, members of Congress and the public expect the President and his senior officials to take special care to be balanced and accurate in describing national security threats. It does not appear, however, that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice met this standard in the case of Iraq. To the contrary, these five officials repeatedly made misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq. In 125 separate appearances, they made 11 misleading statements about the urgency of Iraq’s threat, 81 misleading statements about Iraq’s nuclear activities, 84 misleading statements about Iraq’s chemical and biological capabilities, and 61 misleading statements about Iraq’s relationship with al Qaeda.” Iraq on the Record Report

In addition to the false statements, we are fighting for Operation Iraqi Freedom. If Iraq is a free country or not, how does that affect our Constitution? We aren’t over there fighting for our country, we are over there fighting for Iraq.

Shall we review?

Lt. Watada enlisted because he felt that Iraq posed as a threat to our country with their WMDs. He was also under the impression that Iraq was linked to al Qaeda. The troops are fighting to free another country. Sounds noble, right? Fighting for another country. But read that again. FIGHTING FOR ANOTHER COUNTRY.

That’s not what the ARMY’s oath requires its men to do. It requires them to fight for our country.

Anyone know what that means?

BREACH OF CONTRACT, MY FRIEND.