Next week, Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada will be a free man. As the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq, Watada has waged legal battles for three years with the Army, which tried to court-martial him for insubordination and conducting unbecoming an officer. After his first trial ended in a mistrial, the Army attempted to try Watada a second time, only to be thwarted by a federal judge who ruled a second court-martial would have violated his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

Once the Department of Justice decided in May not to try Watada in federal court, the Army still held out the possibility of court-martialing him for conduct unbecoming an officer—based on his appearance at anti-war rallies and criticizing President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. But Army officials chose over the summer not to pursue the matter any further, and accepted Watada’s resignation from the service. Officially, he will receive a discharge under “other than honorable conditions.”

Watada had offered to resign on previous occasions, but the Army refused. He also offered to serve in Afghanistan—a conflict he did not consider an illegal war, like Iraq.
                                                                                                                                                       -Noel Brinkerhoff

Watada Discharged (by Greg Kakesako, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
Justice Department Drops Case against Iraq War Resister (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)