Ehren Watada
![Watada in uniform<ref>{{cite web |title=Officer at Fort Lewis calls Iraq war illegal, refuses order to go |first1=Hal |last1=Bernton |date=June 7, 2006 |publisher=[[The Seattle Times]] |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003044627_nogo7m.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924132327/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003044627_nogo7m.html |archive-date=September 24, 2006}}</ref>](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Lt._Ehren_Watada.jpg)
Ehren Keoni Watada (born 1978) is a former
first lieutenant of the
United States Army, best known as the first
commissioned officer in the US armed forces to refuse to deploy to
Iraq. In June 2006, Watada refused to deploy for his unit's assigned rotation to
Operation Iraqi Freedom, saying he believed the war to be illegal and that, under the doctrine of
command responsibility, it would make him party to
war crimes. At the time, he was assigned to duty with the 5th Battalion,
20th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade,
2nd Infantry Division, as a
fire support officer. He was brought before a court-martial in 2007 which ended in a mistrial; the Army subsequently discharged him under "
Other-Than-Honorable-Conditions" (OTH) in 2009. An OTH discharge is the least favorable type of administrative discharge from the Army, and is reserved for a "pattern of behavior that constitutes a significant departure from the conduct expected of Soldiers of the Army."
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