>Couldn't all this legal mumbo-jumbo be misleading to soldiers,
>insofar as it is supposed to be a guide to their rights? For all
>practical purposes they have no right to disobey, as far as I can
>see.
There are a number of organizations that serve to protect the rights of US soldiers, as well as US civilians, who refuse to obey all unlawful orders to wage the illegal preventive war on Iraq (or refuse to execute any other criminal orders in any other context for that matter). Brian Willson lists a couple of them in his "Drawing the Line: An Open Letter To Present and Future U.S. Troops" (December 2002, <http://brianwillson.com/line.html>). Here's another -- perhaps one of the most useful organizations in the United States right now:
***** The National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force assists those working on military law issues as well as military law counselors working directly with GIs. It trains and mentors counselors and beginning military law attorneys in all aspects of military law through training materials and direct communication. It updates changes in military law and policy.
MILITARY LAW TASK FORCE 1168 Union Street, Suite 302 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 233-1701
MLTF Steering Committee Members
Aaron Frishberg (New York, NY) Michael Gaffney (Washington, D.C.) David Gespass (Birmingham, AL) Kathy Gilberd (San Diego, CA) Luke Hiken (San Francisco, CA) Marti Hiken (San Francisco, CA) Carol Jahnkow (San Diego, CA) Kathy Johnson (Birmingham, AL) Harold Jordan (Philadelphia, PA) Jim Klimaski (Washington, D.C.) Jeff Lake (San Jose, CA) Dan Mayfield (San Jose, CA) Jeffrey Segel (Louisville, KY)
Co-Chairs:
Kathy Gilberd (KathleenGilberd at aol.com, 619-234-1883, work) Marti Hiken (mlhiken at pacbell.net)
<http://www.nlg.org/mltf/MLTF.html> *****
Lots of resources at the website, as well as contact information.
Yoshie