If the command to go to war is unconstitutional then the military has the obligation and duty to refuse that order.
That's only partially true. They have to be right, and they have to be willing to have that tried by court martial.
Recall the commander who refused some order or other due to his belief that Obama was an illegal commander.
He was tried, convicted, and put out of the military. I don't recall if he did jail time.
I'm glad he stood up for his principles, but if you're "officially" wrong, then you pay the price.
The JCS should just resign.
Remember that Obama has had his Officer purge, removing conservative/constitutional and experienced Generals and Admirals, weakened the Military as well a stock DOD Civilian leaders with his like minded minions. Perhaps this is why he called it "My Military".... perhaps he does have that control now. This all so sucks.
That’s not what Denise Lind ruled in the court-martial of Lt Col Terry Lakin. She ruled that the lawfulness of orders is unrelated to the Constitutionality of the process by which the commanding officers issue combat orders - NOT Obama; the President issues no orders, she says. As so many fine folks here at FR have told us, an order has to be presumed lawful and obeyed - on pain of court-martial - as long as it doesn’t order outright murder (basically). Unconstitutional war (or “kinetic action”, as Obama would call it) apparently doesn’t count as murder.
Furthermore, we are told that the unit commanders don’t even NEED the President to decide anything. There doesn’t have to be a decision from somebody Constitutionally and statutorily authorized to make combat decisions. Each officer can decide on his/her own whether we will invade a foreign country, and those under their authority are duty-bound to do it when the order comes.
The enlisted person’s oath to obey the orders of the President has been a carefully-crafted lie for all these years, since Denise Lind revealed that the President doesn’t give orders and is irrelevant to the lawfulness of orders.
So I don’t know why there’s such a big stink. Any LTC out there could lawfully give the order for Syria to be blown to bits. That is, if what Denise Lind ruled is actually believed to be true, and not just a way of protecting the foreign enemy combatant in our White House...