September ended with the death of another US service member, Ross Vogel III. The US miltary announced: "FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq – A Soldier assigned to Multi-National Corps – Iraq died of a non-combat related injury Sept. 29. The Soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The name of the service member will be announced through the U.S. Department of Defense Official Web site at http://www.defenselink.mil/releases. The announcements are made on the Web site no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member's primary next of kin. The incident is currently under investigation." The month was just starting when the US military announced: "CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – A Multi-National Corps-Iraq Soldier was killed today in an indirect fire attack on Camp Liberty. Release of the identity of the Soldier is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin. The name of the deceased service member will be announced through the U.S. Department of Defense Official Web site at http://www.defenselink.mil/. The announcements are made on the Web site no earlier than 24 hours after notification of the service member's primary next of kin. The incident is currently under investigation." The announcements brought to 4348 the number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war.
Friday saw Ehren Watada discharged from the US military. June 7, 2006, 1st Lt Ehren Watada announced he would not be deploying to Iraq stating that the war was illegal and immoral. With that announcement, Ehren became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. The military attempted to court-martial him [C.I.: "On Monday, February 5, 2007, Watada's court-martial began. It continued on Tuesday when the prosecution argued their case. Wednesday, Watada was to take the stand in his semi-defense. Judge Toilet (John Head) presided and when the prosecution was losing, Toilet decided to flush the lost by declaring a mistrial over defense objection in his attempt to give the prosecution a do-over."]; however, the prosecution was losing the case and Judge Toilet stopped the hearing and declared a mistrial. US District Judge Benjamin Settle found that Ehren could not be tried again on the same charges -- the Constitution is very clear on double jeopardy -- but the military dragged their feet on the remaining charges. Though Ehren's service contract expired in December 2006, he had to report on base at Fort Lewis every work day while the military sought ways to punish him.
And Wednesday, General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, testified before the House Armed Services Committee. But that's another story.
