British Officer Contends Iraq War Illegal

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3724808.html

ALDERSHOT, England — A British serviceman facing his first day of a court martial contended Wednesday that the war in Iraq is illegal. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force medic, is the first British officer accused of refusing to serve in Iraq.

Kendall-Smith, 37, a citizen of New Zealand and Britain who served as a medic during two earlier tours of duty in Iraq, faces five counts of "refusing to obey a lawful command" for his refusal to deploy to Basra in July 2005, and to undertake mandatory pre-deployment training.

"The flight lieutenant's case is that Iraq was and remains under occupation," defense lawyer Philip Sapsford told the court in the garrison town of Aldershot.

"If the U.K. is not entitled in international law to use force against Iraq, the flight lieutenant is entitled to say to this tribunal: 'I hold that belief honestly, and in these circumstances it's my duty to disobey these orders.'"

[Tom Joad]

1. Support those that resist.

http://tomjoad.org/WarHeroes.htm
Lists those real heroes of Bush's war of terror. Those in the military who publicly and actively resist illegal orders.

[BillZBubb]

2. I wish him luck, but the British establishment won't let him off.

Examples must be made. Their whole force in Iraq would melt away otherwise.