Ehren Watada, poster-boy for the US anti-war movement

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Ehren Watada joined the US army in the wave of patriotism that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil. Now a lieutenant, he is refusing to fight in Iraq because he says it is an illegal war.

Watada, 28, has become the poster-boy for the movement to halt the increasingly unpopular war.

Watada was born in Hawaii of Japanese ancestry. Raised in Honolulu, he studied finance and graduated with top grades in 2003, and soon received his commission as second lieutenant in the US army.

His first assignment was with the US forces stationed in South Korea. According to Watada supporters, his superiors praised him as "exemplary," an officer with "unlimited potential," and a man who "likes challenges and moves toward the fight."

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