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"We the People Refuse to Fight": Abandon the Battlefield! Disobey Unlawful Orders

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 19 March 2006
2 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

On the Third anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Antiwar
movement is calling upon the Bush Administration to "Bring the Troops
Home Now". 

"Bring the Troops Home Now" is a strong
yet ambiguous statement because it accepts the legitimacy of the
Commander in Chief who is entrusted in making that decision.

The
war is illegal and criminal. Irrespective of the Commander in Chief’s
decision, US and coalition troops have a moral and legal
obligation to "Abandon the Battlefield" and we must make that
choice possible for individual servicemen and women.

"Abandon the Battlefield" rejects the legitimacy of the Commander in Chief. 

What
it says, is that "We the People Refuse to
Fight" in a war which violates international law and the Us
Constitution.


"Throughout the history of
mankind there have been murderers and tyrants; and while it may seem
momentarily that they have the upper hand, they have always fallen."
(Mahatma Gandhi)

The United States has
discarded pretensions to international legality and decency, and
embarked on a course of raw imperialism run amok." (William Rockler,
Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor)

This war is criminal. It
violates the Nuremberg Charter, the US constitution and the UN
charter. according to Lawrence Mosqueda, US Troops have a "Duty to Disobey All Unlawful Orders".

(Mosqueda, 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MOS303A.html
)

The military oath taken at the
time of induction demands unbending support and allegiance to the US
Constitution, while also demanding that US troops obey orders from
their President and Commander in Chief: 

"I,____________, do solemnly
swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of
the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I
will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey
the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the
officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the
Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God"

The President and Commander in
Chief has blatantly violated all tenets of domestic and international
law. So that making an oath to "obey orders from the President" is
tantamount to violating rather than defending the US Constitution.

According to Lawrence Mosqueda:

"The Uniform Code of
Military Justice (UCMJ) 809.ART.90 (20), makes it clear that military
personnel need to obey the "lawful command of his superior officer,"
891.ART.91 (2), the "lawful order of a warrant officer", 892.ART.92 (1)
the "lawful general order", 892.ART.92 (2) "lawful order". In each
case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey
Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders,
including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The
moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those
who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in
direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ."

(Mosqueda, op cit, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MOS303A.html )

The Commander in Chief is a war criminal. According to Principle 6 of the Nuremberg Charter:

"The fact that a person
[e.g. Coalition troops] acted pursuant to order of his Government
or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under
international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

GI Movement

Let us make that "moral
choice" possible, to enlisted American, British, Canadian and Coalition
servicemen and women. 

Disobey unlawful orders! Abandon the battlefield! ...

Refuse to fight in a war which blatantly violates international law and the US Constitution!

But this is not a choice which enlisted men and women can make individually.

It is a collective and societal choice, which requires an organizational structure.

Across the land in the US,
Britain, Canada and in all coalition countries, the anti-war movement
must assist enlisted men and women to make that moral choice possible,
to abandon the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This will not be an easy task.
Committees at local levels must be set up across the United States,
Canada, Britain, Italy, Japan and other countries, which have troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

These committees should provide
protection, support and legal council to soldiers who refuse to fight
and who face the possibility of prison sentences for desertion, as in
the case of Sergeant Camilo Mejia, who was sentenced by a military
court in May:

 "I sit here a free man... I will sit behind bars a free man because I did the right thing," said Mejia.

When service men and women come
home, we must ensure that they are not obliged to return to the war
theater. We must engage a process which protects them from court
martial.

We call upon veterans’ associations and local communities to support this process.

This movement needs to
dismantle the disinformation campaign. It must effectively reverse the
indoctrination of coalition troops, who are led to believe that they
are fighting "a just war": "a war against terrorists".

The legitimacy of the US military authority must be broken.

The Bush Administration must
learn the lessons of history. The Iraqi and Afghan people are waging a
struggle to oust the US invaders. And that resistance is winning.
Ultimately, the only solution is for the American, British and
coalition occupiers to withdraw. 

Coalition nations should follow
the example of the Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
which has withdrawn its troops from Iraq.

The anti-war movement must
question the legitimacy not only of the Bush administration and its
indefectible British ally, but also of all those governments, which
directly support or pay lip service to the US-led military occupation.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m21679&a...

Forum posts

  • WE THE PEOPLE MEANS YOU WHO WRITE THIS REQUEST. THE TROOPS SERVE THE PEOPLE. THAT MEANS YOU AND THEMSELVES. WHEN YOU THE PEOOPLE THROW OUT THE WARMONGERS AND THE CORPORATES ELITES WHO MAKE MONEY FROM WAR, THE WAR WILL END. DON’T ASK THE TROOPS TO COMMIT TREASON. THE TROOPS ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES AND THEIR HONOR IN THE END. DON’T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM THEM TO SERVE AN INTEREST THAT YOUMUST DO. TAKE TO THE STREETS. THE WAR WILL END WHEN YOU DO. REMEMBER VIETNAM?

    • That’s the problem, bro’. Damned very little of us remember Vietnam, or any recent history for that matter. A confused an ignorant population is far easier to manipulate than a knowledgeable citizenry that are certain of the facts and jealous of their freedom.