Lt Watada claims he has a constitutional right to be a deserter coward traitor oathbreaker protester. 

Ok, that’s not what he said, but it comes close enough.

I admit my bias here and now.  The guy makes me want to hurl.  He is an embarrassment to the uniform he wears.

I feel better now.

Judge hears motions during officer’s pretrial hearing

An Army lieutenant who called the Iraq war illegal and refused to deploy with his Stryker Brigade has a constitutional right to debate such political issues, his lawyer told a pretrial hearing Thursday.

Seeking to reduce the charges against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, his attorney, Eric Seitz of Honolulu, said the soldier should not be penalized for statements he made explaining why he refused to go to Iraq and why he was challenging the Bush administration’s reasons for going to war.

Watada, 28, is charged with missing movement after refusing to deploy with his unit, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The Army also proceeded with charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for statements he made to journalists and at a veterans convention.

Seitz argued that the latter charges should be dropped.

News Flash.  Military people voluntarily sacrifice some of their rights when they take their oaths of service.  Among the things you are not allowed to do is incite to mutiny, which this moron does at every speech he encourages others to follow his example.  Yes its a restriction on free speech.  So what?  I had a security clearance in the Air Force, and when you do, you learn free speech is not an absolute.

"He should not face another four years of penalties because he chose to explain his reasons for opposing the war," Seitz told Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge overseeing Watada’s case at this post south of Tacoma.

Army prosecutors argued that Watada’s statements are offensive to the military and must be looked at in the context in which they were made and the effects they could have as well as the danger they present to the military’s mission.

Here is a round up of news stories concerning the New Direction Congress.

From Huffington Post:  Murtha plans to try and cut off funds for the war.

…To this end, Murtha, the incoming Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is planning to hold wide-ranging hearings, starting January 17th, that will focus on the depleted state of our military readiness , as well as contractor corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to turn the spotlight on how drained the military has become, and on how any talk of a troop surge is utterly irresponsible (as well as strategically misguided). "The public," he said repeatedly, "is already ahead of us on all this.

He says he wants to "fence the funding," denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq "as soon as we can."

Now that’s a great way to support the troops.  Sadly he is not alone with that brilliant idea:

Dems might block funds for Iraq war

Fearing President Bush is poised to escalate the Iraq war, several New England Democrats said they will support spending restrictions to block a potential troop surge, or even leverage a withdrawal.

It is a challenging maneuver that could crosscut the promises of their incoming Democratic leaders to financially support the administration’s war plan while simultaneously calling on the president to reduce the United States’ presence in Iraq.

Anxious Dems eye power of the purse on Iraq

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) will chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee if Democrats win control of the House next year, but his main goal in 2007 does not fall within his panel’s jurisdiction.

“I can’t stop this war,” a frustrated Rangel said in a recent interview, reiterating his vow to retire from Congress if Democrats fall short of a majority in the House.

But when pressed on how he could stop the war even if Democrats control the House during the last years of President Bush’s second term, Rangel paused before saying, “You’ve got to be able to pay for the war, don’t you?”

Iran, the newest loose cannon trying to join the mushroom cloud club has it fingers deep in the quagmire of Iraq, documents show.

U.S. Finds Iran’s ‘Smoking Gun’ in Iraq

American forces have found a "smoking gun” that proves Iran is supporting the insurgency in Iraq — captured Iranian documents showing the country is abetting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists.

News that U.S. forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was reported in December. But now it’s come to light that the Iranians were carrying documents revealing their country’s activities in Iraq. An American intelligence official confirmed that Shiite Iran "is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups,” The New York Sun reported in an article headlined "Iran’s Secret Plan for Mayhem.”

The documents disclosed how the Quds Force — Iran’s elite revolutionary guard unit that supports Shiite Hezbollah and Shiite death squads — also supports individuals associated with al-Qaida in Iraq and the Sunni terror group Ansar al-Sunna.

So one could ask how clear are these documents?   How deep does this go?

Deep:

Another U.S. official, who termed the captured documents a "smoking gun,” said: "We found plans for attacks, phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys — a lot of things that filled in the blanks on what these guys are up to.”

According to the Sun, one document concludes that "Iraq’s Sunni neighbors will step up their efforts to aid insurgent groups and that it is imperative for Iran to redouble efforts to retain influence with them, as well as with Shiite militias.”

Why redouble their efforts?  Easy.  Because they see the US is at a pivotal point, on the cusp of cutting and running because the violence refuses to quell.

In other words their actions are working.  They want us to leave so they can move in.  The historic hatred between the two countries is so deep that there is no chance there is altruism here, particularly when they care only about violence, not about supporting one side or the other.