This Veterans Day, EPW honors Jason Watson
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Presenter: On this Veterans Day, Eugene PeaceWorks recognizes the heroism of U.S. Air Force Maj. Jason Watson. His attorney says he’s been held in solitary confinement since August.
July 1—in full dress uniform on the steps of the U.S. Capitol—Maj. Jason Watson held up a sign that read: ‘Impeach. Convict. Remove.’
In an August interview on CNN, he said Trump was flagrantly violating the Constitution.
Because he is an officer, Watson was charged with 10 counts of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including charges under Article 88, which prohibits “contemptuous words” against the president, vice president, and other officials.
Military.com reports that Watson, just three years from retirement, could be dismissed from the service and lose his pay and benefits if convicted. He could also face imprisonment, which the military calls ‘confinement.’
Here are excerpts from that CNN interview. U.S. Air Force Maj. Jason Watson:
USAF Maj. Jason Watson: It’s important to just underscore that what is happening with the Iran War is very predictable, strategically, and a lot of much smarter people than me knew that it would have gone pretty poorly. Like: the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. That’s known.
And a lot of the consequences that we’re seeing, there was probably advice that was being given to the president of the United States saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen if you do this.’ And he chose to do it anyways. And that’s an important context to keep in mind with all of this…
He is flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaged in rampant corruption and is killing Americans. And that is unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to all of us.
We can all do something about what’s happening in our country and I want to just inspire people and bring the conversation to ‘Impeach. Convict. Remove,’ because I believe we can defeat this government if we just take a stand.
We can change what is happening in our country if we’re just willing to pay a price for it. So all that I could do is ask myself: What’s the highest price that I’m willing to pay? And this is what I ultimately came up with and it is absolutely motivated by my oath to the Constitution…
What he did was unconstitutional. It was an aggressive war of choice that, if we saw another country do that, we would probably look to our allies and say, ‘What are we going to do about this?’ And you could make the comparison with what happened in Ukraine. That was an aggressive war of choice. And now we as a country, America is choosing to do that with Iran.
Presenter: Maj. Jason Watson. His attorney says he has been held in solitary confinement since August.
The mission of Eugene PeaceWorks is to create a society free of war, oppression, and exploitation and to demonstrate that peace works through education, nonviolent grassroots action, and mutual empowerment.
