Conduct Unbecoming.

[maftoul]

Soldier questions Obama's eligibility as president and commander and chief

This guy should be court-martialed for mutiny as of fucking yesterday. This is so against the UCMJ on a whole number of levels not to mention totally offensive. Its one thing to disagree politically, it's a whole other to reject your commander-in-chief out of hand. It is

Comments

[tod_hollykim]

I think he should be court-martialed. He has to obey the commander-in-chief as a solider.

I'd say he has a right to question *if* he was still a civilian, but as a solider he did take an oath.

[pandoras_closet]

That's the core of his argument though. As I understand it,If Obama is not, in fact, a natural-born American Citizen, then any orders he's given as President are subject to review and may be revoked.

The soldier is demanding that Obama legally prove that he is eligible to give those orders.

Whether he is right or wrong to do so is a matter of perspective.

[maftoul]

that question doesnt hold any water though; even if it were a pending issue, he would be obligated to obey those orders given by Obama until proven otherwise.

Not to mention, they sort of figure this stuff out when you submit your documents to run for public office - these are questions that were answered when he ran for the senate.

[pandoras_closet]

Oh, quite. You would think a soldier would know all this.

[ihuitl]

It is one thing for a soldier to disagree with the CinC's decisions or policies, provided he still carries them out (atrocity and such notwithstanding). However, to blatantly deny the authority of a President on an issue that has already been settled is a betrayal of one's duty as a military officer. He has the right to do so as a citizen, but as a sworn commissioned officer he also should be court martialed and given the boot; he can then defame the President all he wants from the civilian world. I may not have been a great fan of the Bush administration, but I did my duty in Iraq for those in my unit and the Iraqis I was helping. Now I'm returning under another President who I will also follow even if I disagree with him at times

[maftoul]

ive seen similar articles on the subject elsewhere (some credible some not so much), it just happened to be the link i had handy.

but well said!

[bkm5191]

I don't agree that soldiers should always follow orders if their conscience dictates otherwise (or they can see evidence in front of them that what they are being asked to do it wrong, I mean there is being a solider and there are things like the Mi Lai massacre which are nothing to do with soldiering, so I think armies should not beat personal thought out of their troops) but this is so clearly something else.

I think the guy most likely has a mental disease, at the very least he is a raving narcissist.

[maftoul]

I agree, and there is legal precedent to not follow orders to engage in acts which you know to be morally wrong (generally this means things which fall outside the Geneva convention). The only crux is that in a time of war, refusal to follow orders IS punishable by death. That argument is a whole slippery slope. But as you said, this is clearly something else. Soldiers are totally allowed to have their own personal opinions, the question is whether or not they are allowed to discuss it publicly. In this case, the guy is an army officer and that gives the impression that the military does or could endorse his opinion.

I think the guy is a nutjob.

[onyoukai]

I question whether he'd be doing this if McCain had won. He should be locked up.