Would you then perhaps think it would be OK for members of the military to question the authority of those orders?
Or as a member of the military is it incumbent upon you to obey orders, even if those orders are by nature illegal or unauthorized by the constitution?
A soldier is supposed to obey an unlawful order, but orders from your superiors are presumed to be lawful if they are customary to service. An order to be deployed to Afghan or Iraq, a war authorized by Congress, are presumed to be legal.
Those wars have gone far beyond the approval of this president and were in place on his assuming office. They were initiated by a former president, and they have joint resolutions of congress affirming them. Soldiers are to presume them legal, AND for the sake of those already there, they are not to leave them in the lurch in threat of their lives for the sake of what at this point is a personal philosphy or opinion. They are the relief, and if the relief does not arrive, it has injured the troops on the line.
This goes to the heart of what it means to be a comrade-at-arms. You don’t desert and leave your fellow troops out there. You just don’t.
Now, if this president decides on military action against Honduras, he will first have to make his case. It’s no where near that. I watched as both Grenada and Panama built up, and the Honduran situation isn’t anywhere near the point of deploying troops.
The manual for courts martial totally supports the refusal of orders that are patently illegal...such as orders to rape or pillage. As stated previously, orders that are customary to service are presumed to be legal, AND coming THROUGH the chain, they are coming from your immediate superiors (the officers appointed over you) who DO HAVE authority constitutionally to direct the actions of soldiers on the battlefield.
P-M, I have no regard for this female doc, because she has deserted troops in the field that she knows are dependent for their lives on her unique skills. And she has done it for what at this moment is her own personal philosphy or opinion.
You also know that I, too, want to see Obama’s original birth certificate. He has yet to show it. I’m interested in facts, and the fact is that he’s not produced any of his early documents.
This, however, does not change what is customary and necessary to military service relating to OUR young lives already on the battlefield.