The Blog @ Spolitics

Preview of Tomorrow’s NY Times Editorial: A Close Look at Watada

While we have no inside knowledge, Spolitics.com has been able to deduce — based on past editorials and, in particular, their editorial on Haditha — that the New York Times will run an editorial that reads something like the following. After all, everything is partly Bush’s fault, right?

A Close Look at Watada 

The apparent refusal to go to war in Iraq by Lt. Ehren Watada will be hard to dispose of with another Washington court-martial. The Anti-war movement has made clear that it will not stand for that. The country needs, and deserves, answers as to how this was allowed to happen. This affair cannot simply be dismissed as the spontaneous decision of one man.

This is the quagmire that everyone worried about when the Iraq invasion took place. Critics of the war predicted that war protestors would be chanting in the streets and encouraging our soldiers to refuse their sworn duty. We are propelled down the same path that led hippies to burn their draft cards during the Vietnam War. The Bush administration understood these risks too, but dismissed them out of its deep, unwarranted confidence that our soldiers would do their duty, despite the fact that the military is not open to homosexuality.

Now that we have reached the one place we most wanted to avoid, it will not do to focus blame narrowly on Army Lt. Watada and ignore the administration officials, from President Bush on down, who got us into the war in which Watada refuses to become a co-conspirator. The inquiry into Watada also needs to critically examine the behavior of top commanders responsible for ensuring lawful and professional conduct of Army officers.

So far, nothing in President Bush’s repeated statements on the issue offers any real assurance that the White House and the Pentagon will not once again try to protect the most senior military and political ranks from proper accountability. This is the pattern that this administration has repeatedly followed in the past — from the deserters who fled to Canada or the seaman who jumped overboard.

What we now know about the recent events essentially boils down to this: Lt. Watada signed up for the Iraq War, was trained to lead his troops into battle in Iraq and then abandoned his fellow soldiers at the last minute. We know this not through the original channels that should handle these situations. We know it because Watada and anti-war protestors were brave enough to hold a press conference and get some PR mileage out of his decision.

We still do not know how high up the chain of command Watada’s decision to refuse to go to war went, nor do we know how the president, the defense secretary and other top officials responded when they first learned of Watada’s intentions.

At the very least, the public is now entitled to straight answers on what went wrong with Watada and who, besides Watada, will be required to take responsibility for it.

Update: Michelle Malkin has the latest on Watada. He’s also featured in the latest Vent at Hot Air.