Posted by alexandra_k on October 13, 2006, at 23:59:56
In reply to Re: doctor jailed for refusing order to go to Iraq, posted by Jost on October 13, 2006, at 22:46:16
> I mean I'm not at all clear that the US (and other) troops in Iraq are doing the killing, as opposed to the protecting at this point.
The charges against him are dated 2005.
> the big difference between Iraq and other US wars...
?
I'm sorry, that lost me.
His point is that he believes the invasion of Iraq was unlawful and hence orders to train for and go to the war are unlawful.
He isn't just saying it. He claims to have documents to support his beliefs. He has impecable character references. He is known as being a thoughtful and intelligent person. He studied... It might even be the ethics of warfare when he did philosophy (can't quite remember, something on Kant's ethics anyway). He has never been reprimanded before. He has gone where ordered and trained when ordered. He claims this is different because he believes the invasion of Iraq was unlawful and hence orders to train for and go to the war are unlawful.
When members of the Nazi party were tried they pleaded 'but we were just following orders'. They were told that that was no excuse. So it seems that we would have wanted them to have said 'that order is unlawful and hence i am not going to follow it'. That is precisely what this guy is doing. Not following orders he has good reason to believe are unlawful.
They managed to say that the legality / illegality of the invasion was irrelevant to the legality / illegality of the orders. When the orders were given the freely (?lol) elected Iraq government asked for help (?) from the coalition forces. Hence the orders he was given were lawful at the time they were given regardless of the legality / illegality of the invasion in the first place.
That was the upshot of the trial.
I know people on these boards feel differently...
But personally... I think charges of war crimes are appropriate given the conduct of certain parties... Kendall-Smith is just getting the ball rolling on that... War crime charges. That is what this is really about. Some f*cking accountability.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:694101
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20061009/msgs/694645.html