While I don’t disagree it definitely limits the possibility of the unlawful order question - that was really the intent of it. They really only wanted to do 2 things with the oath
1) prevent the military from staging a coup and overthrowing the civilian government, and
2) prevent illegal atrocities - though that has become more the focal point since the ‘laws of war’ were formalized.
They weren’t really thinking about a possible civilian usurpation using extravagant machinations - of course they didn’t consider cars, planes, internet, phones, tvs, or most people living to close to 80 either. They figured people would still know people and who they were voting for. I think part of where we went wrong was limiting the size of the house and taking senators away from state control - but that’s just me.
And the oath hasn’t changed much since it’s inception and things at the start were more iffy then most people realize for a bit - especially during the articles of confederation and whiskey rebellion.
hehe - as to the strawberries - I referred to Bogart’s Caine Mutiny in my 1st/2nd post. There are 2 signficant scenes revolving around strawberries missing from the officer’s mess in the movie. The character had a habbit of rolling two brass balls in his hand when he was nervous or starting to get a bit “out of it” - it calmed him down. The court finally realizes he’s off when he relates the story of the strawberries and explains that’s when he knew the crew was out for him - all while slowly rotating the balls in his right hand. GOOD MOVIE related to the subject :)
lol. I figured it had something to do with the movie but not having seen it I wasn’t sure what it meant. Well... I guess I’m the one who took your strawberries so just keep calming yourself with the brass balls and I promise not to steal any more strawberries. lol
I work a long, monotonous physical labor job that gives me a lot of time to think. Or watch movies. So maybe I’ll see if I can find that movie and watch it one of these days.
I think a lot of our defenses were not geared toward the kind of war and threats we face today. Maybe the enemies tailored their methods to match our vulnerabilities. I think we need to seriously look at those vulnerabilities though, because we definitely have serious enemies. Both the communists and Islamists have pretty much said that their game plan is to disguise themselves as normal Americans and topple the nation from within.
Sometimes I wonder if we are beyond ever undoing the damage already done by communists taking over basic infrastructure. And the Muslims are definitely on the move, as if they smell blood in the water.
We had a devotion today that asked how we would live if we knew we had one week left before dying. I said that’s a tough one because you can’t just snuggle with the family for a whole week so you’d have to find something else worth doing in that time also. And it would be a different response if I knew it was just me that would be dying, and not my whole family or the whole world ending or something.
I think about what my kids might see in their lifetimes, and so much of what I do is really fighting for their sake, for their future. If I knew there wasn’t a future to even fight for, my life would be totally different. So the questions about what happens if Obama truly turns this nation communist are not just theoretical mind games for me. That’s probably true for most people here.