Lt. Watada's court martial began down at Fort Lewis yesterday; supporters and opponents came out to demonstrate on both sides, though in admittedly small numbers in either case.

Watada's defense attorney was doing his best to try and make the trial an issue of whether the war was legal or not, but the judge did the right thing and kept that argument out. After all, the legality, or indeed morality of the war are not the question at hand.

The issue at hand for those who don't know: Lt. Watada signed up to join the military in 2003, but when he was assigned to combat in Iraq, chose not to deploy with his unit; declaring he believed the war to be illegal, even though Congress authorized it, and Saddam Hussein repeatedly violated terms of that were codified as part of their unconditional surrender in the first Persian Gulf War.

If every officer decided on his own whether orders were moral or legal, we would have anarchy. Military officers give up that right when they sign on the dotted line. The problem is that those who believe the war is immoral are using a logical fallacy when they try to convince rational thinkers of their position.

I am very confident that this trial will be over quickly, because the Lieutenant doesn't have a leg to stand on, logically or legally. I hope he gets a long stretch in the brig to think about how big of a wuss he is to be a traitor to his country while there are actual heroes on the front line fighting his battle.