I learned about courage of conviction last week when I met with a courageous young American patriot: 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a leader who lives by example.

He is an individual who, out of moral conscience, refuses to participate in a war that he believes violates the U.S. Constitution, Geneva accords, Nuremberg principals, and the United Nations Charter.

Watada is a 28-year-old U.S. Army artillery officer from Hawai'i who has become the first active-duty military officer publicly to oppose the war in Iraq.

As a result of his act, Lt. Watada is facing military court martial Feb. 5 at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Particularly disturbing is that for the first time since 1965, the U.S. military is prosecuting someone for expressing his opinion, an alarming turn of events. Yet in this era, under the current Bush administration — where one branch of government can deliberately mislead another branch in order to authorize an illegal war, where the president can spy on our citizens without a warrant, where citizens and non-citizens alike are arbitrarily and indefinitely detained without charge — who would be surprised?

I, for one, am outraged.

When an individual emerges with the integrity of Lt. Watada, all of us benefit, whether we agree with him or not. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth."

Lt. Watada shared the following with me at our dinner: "I'm trying to send out to the American people ... a message that the responsibility of ending this illegal and immoral war lies with the people of this country. If they don't do anything, nothing is going to happen."

While Lt. Watada awaits pretrial hearings Jan. 4 and 5, his father, Bob Watada, continues to rally support for his son's cause. He wrote that "in the fear and hysteria of war, disastrous decisions are sometimes made in flagrant disregard of the Constitution.

"As our history teaches, and Lt. Watada reminds us, the Constitution must be protected, and not ignored, in times of war."

So I ask, what are we willing to do to match the courage of Lt. Watada? Please go to www.thankyoulthawaii.org to find out.

Lance Holter of Pa'ia, Maui, is a former Peace Corps volunteer and interim chairperson of the Maui Democratic Party. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.