US soldier disputing legality of Iraq war facing court-martial for desertion News
US soldier disputing legality of Iraq war facing court-martial for desertion

[JURIST] US Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing [advocacy site], an Iraq war veteran, will face a court-martial this week for charges of desertion after leaving his barracks on his return from Iraq last year. Clousing’s attorney said that he has agreed to a plea bargain and intends to plead guilty to a lesser charge of absent without leave. Clousing, who has said he refuses to participate in a war with "no legal basis to be fought," left his post at Fort Bragg in June 2005. He turned himself in [JURIST report] at Fort Lewis in August.

Clousing was deployed to Baghdad in December 2004 after training as an interrogator for the 82nd Airborne, and while there said he witnessed the unprovoked killing of an Iraqi man by US troops at a checkpoint. When he raised the issue with superiors he said he was told he "needed to shut up," according to AP. Clousing has declined to seek conscientious objector status [Selective Service backgrounder] as he says he is not inherently opposed to all wars. The Raleigh News and Observer has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.