What Will Become of Ricky Clousing?

Clousing, an army interpreter who went AWOL over a year ago has turned himself in. He left a note on his door before departing, it was Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote: "Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right."

Clousing had more to say before he was taken into custody at Fort Lewis. Here are some snipits from the Seattle Times article:

During less than six months in Iraq, Clousing said he witnessed the "baseless incarceration" and the "daily physical, psychological and emotional harassment" of Iraqi citizens.

He said he also witnessed the killing of an innocent Iraqi man by an American soldier in Mosul, but said when he tried to talk to unit leaders he was treated as an inexperienced soldier who "needed to shut up."

"I saw firsthand the abuse of power that goes without accountability," said Clousing, who has refused to participate in a "war of aggression" that has "no legal basis to be fought."

Clousing joined the Army in July 2002 and was trained as an interrogator with the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg. He deployed to Baghdad in December 2004.

"We Americans have found ourselves in a pivotal era where we have traded humanity for patriotism," Clousing said Friday. "We have traded our civil liberties for a sense of security.

Good luck to Clousing and his family.