Since the US invasion in 2003, a handful of active-duty troops have openly refused deployment to Iraq. But the lightning rod case of resistance has been that of 28-year-old Lieut. Ehren Watada of the US Army.

The highest-ranking commissioned officer to resist deployment, Watada faces a court-martial showdown as early as February, a trial that could land him an eight-year jail sentence. He has been charged with missing a troop movement, conduct unbecoming an officer and contempt toward officials. What particularly irked the Army was Watada's August appearance before a Veterans for Peace convention in Seattle, where the young officer called for more resistance to the war in Iraq. "The idea is this," Watada said, "that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it."

Watada's father, Robert Watada, was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War and did alternative service in the Peace Corps. But the younger Watada was no pacifist. "It was all about September 11," Watada says in an interview from his home off base near Fort Lewis, Washington. "Any way to serve and defend our country. I was no different. And I had other reasons as well: wanting to be part of something bigger and more noble."

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