AGNEW — An Army officer from Fort Lewis facing a court martial for refusing to go to Iraq and speaking publicly against the war rallied a group of peace activists near Sequim on Saturday afternoon.
Wearing civilian clothes, Lt. Ehren Watada, 28, of Honolulu, Hawaii, spoke to a packed house of about 80 people at the Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship during a meeting of the North Olympic Chapter of Veterans for Peace.
Watada was scheduled to speak at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend later Saturday.
The Port Townsend presentation was hosted by the Teen Peace Project.
Port Townsend resident Liz Rivera Goldstein is co-managing Watada’s anti-Iraq war campaign with Seattle activist Carrie Hathorne.
Watada said in Agnew that he is facing stiff odds in his battle against his court-martial, scheduled for Feb. 5, but he isn’t afraid.
“It’s honestly what I believe a soldier must do,” Watada said.
He received several rounds of applause and two standing ovations from the crowd, as well as donations for his legal defense.
He said he didn’t know how much he has raised.
He expects to speak to groups about three times per week until his day in military court.
Joined in 2003
Watada joined the Army in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq.
He had just graduated from Hawaii Pacific University.
At the time, Watada said he believed he was almost “guaranteed” to go to Iraq.
He completed basic training that June and was stationed in Korea in 2004 and 2005.
He then began learning about Iraq, he said, and began to believe that the invasion and occupation were both illegal and immoral.
He requested that he be deployed to Afghanistan, or allowed to resign.
The Army offered him a non-combat assignment in Iraq, but he refused, he said.
He said he wasn’t afraid to fight and die.
His objection was that President Bush and other members of the administration deceived Congress and the public into starting an illegal war, he said.