Lt. Ehren Watada: Accused of Free Speech?

The Seattle Times came out with an editorial calling for Watada's conviction. Lt. Watada faces not only charges of missing movement but also several "Conduct Unbecoming" charges stemming from speeches he gave. It has been a while in America since somebody went to jail for giving a speech, but that is the situation with Lt. Watada. Give a speech, go to jail. One of the "criminal" speeches he is charged with giving was to a veterans convention. We start off with that speech. You be the judge; hear the speech and decide if a crime was committed. I sincerely doubt if the editors at the Seattle Times who called for Watada's conviction had even heard the speech, or seen it in print. Yet there they were--aping, chanting for a conviction like a Greek chorus of harpies. We present the speech, uncut. Be inspired, we were. www.thankyoult.org www.couragetoresist.org

We follow this up with footage from the FTA tours that occurred in the early 70s. Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda, Holly Near, Country Jo McDonald, and others who I can't think of right now toured throughout the Pacific, performing for thousands of soldiers at each stop. I helped organize one of these shows, and it was truly a high point in my life to be in an auditorium, filled with thousands of American GIs all singing "We love Ho Chi Minh." It was sort of like GIs today singing we love Saddam, except there WAS something to love in Ho Chi Minh. Nonetheless, it was a rare moment in human history, to have so many soldiers clearly identify with the so-called "enemy." There was a different song from those shows, sung by Rita Martinson that we are including on "Indymedia Presents #235," called "Soldier We Love You." I hear that the song can be found on the new version of the "Sir! No Sir!" DVD. I didn't take it from there, but rather from a tape one of the producers gave me for safe-keeping years ago. For many years this material was not available at all except from copies of the tape this producer had surreptitiously made to preserve the legacy of the FTA Show. The soldiers of the Viet Nam generation DID stop the war. If the soldiers of Watada's generation can do the same, it might as Lt. Watada says in his speech, a really long time before the US will be able to do another frivolous invasion of somebody else's country. This song, "Soldier, We Love You," is for Lt. Watada.

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News & Politics

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• Watada
• IWAW
• veterans