Lt. Ahren Watada, True American Hero/Christine

I would like to promote the conduct of a man I've never met and only became aware of through the news for a military award. His name? Lt. Ahren Watada.
The award? The Golden Wheelbarrow. The reason? He refused to go to Iraq. But wait, there's more.

There is no Golden Wheelbarrow award, as of yet, that I know of, but I think there should be. The military gives awards for various things, the 'you showed up on time' award, the 'you didn't steal anything(that we know of) award, various commendations of various types. Including the Congressional Medal Of Honor, which is the highest military award. Usually, the Congressional Medal of Honor is awarded posthumously, to the soldier that did the best job of getting themselves physically redistributed on the battlefield. In all my readings and studies and experiences, I one day came across the name of one man, one Smedley Butler.
Gen. Butler was a marine corps general, about a hundred years ago. History. It's profound, it's revelatory. It's important. It's important that we do our best to learn from it. It's more important than even the most expensive submarine, jet fighter aircraft, gold-plated lockwasher, or whatever else the Pentagon is urinating our tax dollars away on this week. Accountability.

Accounting. Public account. Official account. Bank account. Lots of counting going on, but what we counted on in Congress was a strong voice in opposition to the war. Instead, we got waffles. We got lied to systematically, in my view. The object? Control of another country's oilfields, in my view, anyway. Which brings us back to Gen. Butler, and his famous essay, 'war is a racket'.

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm