US soldier refuses to report for active duty in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jlR6Ky_n9NjGaMqzy4Ks9bk-PThw

17 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A month after US army reservist Matthis Chiroux publicly refused to deploy to Iraq, the former sergeant on Sunday set himself up for possible prosecution by failing to report for active duty with his unit in South Carolina.

"Tonight at midnight, I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactivate to participate in the Iraq occupation," Chiroux told reporters in Washington.

"I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation, the warriors of this nation...", Chiroux read from a statement as his father Rob, who had travelled to Washington from Alabama to support his son on Father's Day, stood beside him.

Last month, Chiroux rejected an order calling him back to active duty in Iraq, saying he considers the war "illegal and unconstitutional."

[gratuitous]

1. Disobeying an illegal order

Now there's something you don't see everyday, Chauncey.

[bryant69]

3. What makes the order to report to duty illegal?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[gratuitous]

4. The duty for which you're being asked to report

"Here Sergeant, stand here and swing your fists."

"Yes sir, Lieutenant."

Nothing illegal there.

"Oh wait, I need to move a bound prisoner into position so that your fists will strike him."

The difference is subtle, but noticeable.

"Report for duty, Sergeant."

"Yes sir, Lieutenant."

Okay.

"Report for duty in committing an ongoing war crime and a crime against humanity."

"Sir, no sir."

[bryant69]

6. I don't think that's parrallel

At any rate, while I admire him, obviously he will end up doing jail time. You can't make obeying orders in the military optional.

But once again it's us as Civilians that have failed our military by failing to prevent or bring an end to this war.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Radical Activist]

7. After ww2 the world decided that "just following orders"

isn't an acceptable excuse anymore.
And the military is always in a better position to stop a war. They did in Vietnam.

[bryant69]

8. If that soldier were ordered to pull out his gun and shoot an unarmed civilian

as the Germans were, I'd agree with you. He's being ordered to report for duty. If you are a soldier and you are ordered to report for duty, you report for duty. If you don't want to live with that, don't be a soldier.

I don't know how the military stopped the Vietnam war - to what are you referring?

Bryant

[Fireweed247]

14. The entire war is illegal- no one is required to report for duty

I hope more people join him. I cannot understand why anyone would go to Iraq after everything we have learned. How can anyone kill another human to put money in the pockets of war profiteers? Jail is heaven compared to what that will do to your soul.

[bryant69]

15. No one is required to report to duty?

I'm not sure you understand how the military works.

Bryant

[Fireweed247]

18. This is an illegal war- I don't give a damn about the 'law' under this corrupt regime

They don't give a damn about the US laws either. A soldier's duty is to defend the Constitution, not a war criminal.

"Following orders" will not hold up under international law.

and personally I would choose my soul over what any government told me to do...spiritual law...

[bryant69]

19. Than you should probably stay out of the military

I mean if you are going to put your soul over obeying orders, well, that makes you a poor candidate.

Bryant

[gratuitous]

12. And he's apparently willing to go to jail

Certainly our government has failed in its obligation to the military, and we really need to get away from this nonsense that once a person has signed the dotted line, they've ceded all control over their lives and their morality and their conscience to their superiors.

But as long as the High Church of Redemptive Violence holds sway over our country and society, it's going to be a struggle. But I'm in the lifetime active duty force for that, so I know what I'm in for, as well.

[bryant69]

13. I admire him. But i don't see much of a good end for him, as far as the military goes. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

5. As explained here all wars of aggression are illegal

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6917.htm

Was The Iraq War Legal, Or Illegal, Under International Law?

"Advantage is a better soldier than rashness." -Montjoy in Wm. Shakespeare's Henry V, 3.6.120

Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D.

09/17/04 "ICH" -- During a BBC radio interview on Wednesday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan created a controversy by reiterating his long-held position that the Iraq War was illegal because it breached the United Nations Charter. On Thursday, the imperial leaders of the "Coalition of the Willing" retaliated by vehemently arguing that their Iraq War was, to the contrary, legal.

Obviously, this dispute raises a legal question: "Whose opinion is correct, and whose is incorrect?" Additionally, we should be asking ourselves: "Who decides? (i.e., 'Whose jurisprudential opinion shall be dispositive for purposes of resolving this dispute?')"

It seems eminently reasonable -- even for the disputants -- to conclude that the optimal source of guidance on this question of international law would have to be the world's foremost experts in the field of international law. Hence, the UN's chief and the coalition's leaders need to know how the world's top international law experts would resolve their jurisprudential dispute. And we, the people, need to know who's right and who's wrong here.

Realistically, one cannot seriously expect the disputants -- much less their national electorates -- to wade through numerous legal documents, most of which contain rigorous and not-occasionally tedious reasoning, to find the correct answer. Thus, it seems prudent to proceed directly to the world's most authoritative answer to our pressing question du jour: "Was the Iraq War legal, or illegal, under international law?"

And The World's Most Authoritative Answer Is ... Among the world's foremost experts in the field of international law, the overwhelming jurisprudential consensus is that the Anglo-American invasion, conquest, and occupation of Iraq constitute three phases of one illegal war of aggression.



But I still think Pinky explains it the best:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Khut8xbXK8

[madokie]

2. That is what a true Patriot is

the order for him to travel to Iraq is an illegal order. It's in his duty to refuse it. imo

[Echo In Light]

9. Kudos

[papapi]

10. Good for him. Brave young man. A true patriot.

[KeineAhnung]

11. No honor....

You sign your name.. you go... If only to help protect your brothers next to you. It is really that simple.

[Richard Steele]

17. Wrong. (Such simplistic & absolutist statements usually are- it's just that simple.) nm

[redqueen]

16. Good luck to him.

Apparently things aren't working out so well for Pfc. Michael Barnes... so I'm not sure what one in the military with a conscience has to do in order not be forced to help this country commit war crimes.