...
I do not find [Lt. Watada] noble or courageous, it is true, but I have no malice toward him. I disagree with him strongly, even though I fundamentally agree with his position on the war, but I find his justifications shallow and his posturing grating. There are principles more important to me than his case involved here...
While I do believe that there are instances of a moral/ethical epiphany, I have something of a problem with someone who has volunteered to serve subsequently developing what might appear to be a convenient sense of ethics in order to evade the ultimate consequences of that military service.
A few years ago, a US Army NCO with a good service record refused to obey an order to wear a blue beret and a UN shoulder-patch while serving with a UN "peacekeeping" detachment. The soldier,
Specialist Michael New,
never also questioned the duty to which he was assigned,
only the legality of requiring him to wear what he regarded as a "foreign" uniform item and serve in a "foreign" army; for him it was a matter of conscience. IIRC, he was court-martialed and convicted of refusing to obey a lawful order and subsequently discharged (bad conduct type?) from the service.
I see that soldier's action no less a matter of conscience than that of the officer now in question, and also as far less a matter of a possible convenient conscience.
...I am a great believer in justice and the law as an instrument of it. In this instance justice is not being served. If 1LT Watada wants to go down the path he has taken, that is fine, and I support his ability to do so. It is, after all, a matter of conscience. But he should accept the consequences of his actions, which means jail time and dismissal as an officer. That is the price he should pay. That would be justice...
Perhaps it's a case of wanting to eat the cake and have it, too. Is Lt. Watada expecting to carry out an act requiring considerable moral courage without being willing to accept what is generally considered to be the extremely high price for such actions? The NCO apparently was far more willing to accept the consequences of his presumptively insubordinate act that is the officer.
