Posted on 04/06/2012 9:26:41 AM PDT by Mozilla
A US Marine faces possible dismissal after posting critical remarks on Facebook about US President Barack Obama, with a review board recommending a less than honorable discharge.
Sergeant Gary Stein (26) a nine-year veteran, posted comments on Facebook and other websites calling Obama a coward and "the economic and religious enemy," a Marine Corps board was told during an all-day hearing on Thursday.
Stein had urged Obama's defeat in the November election, writing "screw Obama" in one posting, and had founded a website called Armed Forces Tea Party, apparently in support of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement.
On one site he sold bumper stickers reading "NOBAMA 2012."
The three-member board meeting at Camp Pendleton, a military base in southern California, announced its decision on Thursday. The final decision will be made by a commanding general.
Stein had no comment after the decision, but Mark Brewer, one of his civilian lawyers, said: "We're disappointed but we're going to keep fighting for this Marine."
During the hearing, Marine lawyers argued that Stein be booted over the remarks about Obama, who is the commander and chief of US armed forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.iafrica.com ...
You are 100% correct.
Marines are NOT soldiers.
And this man knew the rules. The military is not a college campus of peace, love and “free” speech.
The Marine Corps has said it decided to take administrative action after Stein declared on Facebook that he would not follow orders from Obama and later clarified that statement saying he would not follow unlawful orders.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/04/05/20120405california-marine-critical-obama-argues-free-speech.html#ixzz1rHNf9woa
You just can't have sergeants saying that in such a public place while openly affiliating themselves with the military. We wouldn't support it if it was some lefty punk saying it about a GOP President, and we shouldn't support this either.
How is this any different than standing in the town square and announcing the same things?
Well there is hypocrisy. As always is the case. You can attack the right but not the left. Lame.
Then there is Article 134 - it’s a general catch-all.
You DO NOT do anything that can discredit the military, this includes saying anything about the Commander In Chief. It’s not a secret, it’s pretty much as well known as the Chow Hall, the Head and the bunk in which you are assigned.
Thank you both for the information.
I despise Obama, but rules are rules. And the reasons for those rules are sound; namely, you don’t want your military to become involved in politics. Plenty of banana republics attest to that. So you cut off anyone at the knees who is in uniform and takes even a tentative first step in that direction by criticizing the CIC.
Now if we could just keep Congress from playing with the military like it was some kind of beach ball.
I have high regard for the presidency and none for Obama.
However, in an earlier article, I read that he possibly was doing his blogging on a government computer and as Sergeant So & So of the Marines.
Had he done this on his own time, his own computer, and under simply his name without mention of the Marines, then he’d be in the clear.
Regardless who the president is, a member of the military can’t use a government machine for personal activities, and he cannot give the impression he is speaking “as a member” of the Marine Corps.
If true, this Sergeant had made an error in judgment. I don’t think it rose to the level of court-martial. This was clearly a non-judicial issue in my opinion.
I would really love to know what paragraph of the separations manual they are using for their justification. That would tell us alot.
When the military code was written, there was no Face Book or Twitter. These things present a new wrinkle. I think the code needs to be updated and this ruling might be the catalyst.
For my $0.02...I think the Marine would have been okay with his initial criticism as it was in conversation on a forum. I think he did himself no good with his Armed forces Tea Party Face Book page.
Had he done this on his own time, his own computer, and under simply his name without mention of the Marines, then he’d be in the clear.
Agreed.
Doing what this guy has done never even crossed anyone’s mind when I served. Then again, my C-in-C was Ronald Reagan.
This Marine is a Non-Commissioned officer...questions?
Chaplain, your response reminds me a lot of what Marine Gen Chesty Puller says—see my excerpt Chesty Puller, Loyalty Down....
Semper Watching!
Gunny G
1952—’72
aka: Dick Gaines
*****
I'm curious. Is he in trouble for what he posted or is he in trouble for continuing to post stuff about Obama after he was told by his superiors to knock it off? Two entirely different things.
I'm in the navy and a lot of my FB friends are also in the navy. Fellow sailors post crap about Obama all the time (or, at least, they used to). Personally, I've made it a practice to keep my very infrequent FB postings as mundaine and inoffensive as possible.
No it's not. The UCMJ is unique to the military and when you take the oath "to support and defend the Constitution and to obey the orders of those appointed above me" you give up your right to criticize the command structure. If you can't take this oath "freely with out any mental reservation or purpose of evasion" you have no place being in the military.
You’re welcome!
Foolish, because he otherwise seems to have been a good Marine.
Good post. 100/100
Gunny!
Chesty was right, but he didn’t know (at that time) it would come from WITHIN!
Dick Gaines
52-72
Semper Watching!
*****
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