Obama Birther Soldier is a FreeRepublic Poster (Maj. Cook)

Washington Independent ^ | 7-14-09 | David Weigel

[Uncle Miltie]

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I hope when they come to arrest us all I get rounded up with Lazamataz, you know that's going to be the party Gulag.

LOL! Good one! Count me in. I'll also be likely to be in a music group like that string quartet playing music on the Titanic trying to keep everyone's hopes up.

[tcrlaf]

the biggest obstacle for the “birthers” has been LEGAL STANDING...

United States Military Officers are, BY OATH, pledged to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foriegn AND Domestic.

They swear thier oath to the CONSTITUTION, and not to the leadership, unlike the enlisted oath, which includes obeying the orders of officers AND the President.

And THAT is what gives them legal standing. Lawful orders CANNOT be issued by an unlawful leader, and that precedent came out of THE NUREMBURG TRIALS...

MANY Officers I know have the same doubts about Obama as this Major, but FEW have the balls to follow through like this Major has done. This could very well open the floodgates, and encourage others..

[uncommonsense]

How does this promote "free speech" and open communication?

Well yikes. Looks like "loose lips" really do "shink ships"

[montanajoe]

He needs to resign his commission and get out of the service and pursue this in civilian courts. I was a grunt it baffles me how an officer can command or deserve respect from the grunts when he does not obey the orders of his superiors.

[Fred]

a man of great courage ping to roaddog727

[tcrlaf]

“He needs to resign his commission and get out of the service and pursue this in civilian courts.”

What is so hard for some to understand??
If he resigns, then he has NO LEGAL STANDING....

[americanophile]

"Maj. Stefan F. Cook, who is refusing to be deployed because of his belief in conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama’s citizenship, is a member of, and frequent poster at, the conservative Website FreeRepublic. Cook, who posts under the name “roaddog727,” revealed his identity in a post about the veteran networking site Together We Served."

Where's the news value in this? He's an American citizen and soldier who has reasonable cause to question the right of the President to occupy his office under the Constitution and is seeking adjudication of the matter. Frankly it's an important constitutional issue, not merely with regard to Obama's qualifications, but with regard to standing. Who cares if he posts here or what his moniker is? Am I unaware of some sinister aspect of FR? This is a ridiculous article, with all the appearance of a news piece, but nothing of substance.

[montanajoe]

At this point even if he has standing, which I seriously question, he does not have a justicable controversy as the order was rescinded and the case is moot.

[Bellflower]

Not sure if you saw this one!

[PA Engineer]

They new earlier. The “racism” attack was planned in advanced. Remember the Daily Kos claims to have many government operatives as members. They include Senators and Representatives. The media is also included in there guest list which explains the coordination between them and the attempt to de-legitimize FR. The pseudo journalist Chris from the sun was their sacrificial patsy. If it exploded in their faces they had plausible deniability. How else would you explain the instantaneous racism memes. This went viral because it was fabricated and planned to do so.

The recent flap here is just one front on the war they are waging to suppress the legitimacy of the current POTUS. There is no coincidence.

[nightlight7]

The Obama attack machine is already going after a firefighter and Sarah Palins children and now they have Maj Cook too??

It's even more interesting how the well coordinated attacks from news media, aiming to discredit Free Republic as a 'racist blog', came right before Major Cook, a member of this newly discovered 'racist blog', forced O's underlings to blink. Coincidence?

[zipper]

He needs to resign his commission and get out of the service and pursue this in civilian courts. I was a grunt it baffles me how an officer can command or deserve respect from the grunts when he does not obey the orders of his superiors.

That's easy. The orders are ILLEGAL.

[GeronL]

That is a great point.

Probably not a coincidence!

That Jim Thompson needs to be fired! /sarc

[zipper]

Being vet I can't support this guy although I support the effort by civilian's. In my view you can be a soldier or a civilian not both. I would not want to serve with him.

I suppose you never heard of the National Guard.

[plsjr]

"Being vet I can't support this guy although I support the effort by civilian's. In my view you can be a soldier or a civilian not both. I would not want to serve with him."

The "Citizen-Soldier" is what the Military College of South Carolina (The Citadel) is proud of producing and a good number of their graduates enter the U.S. Military.

I would say that if anyone is a citizen, s/he should consider him/herself part of America's defense corps (even though leftists would prefer otherwise).
I certainly wouldn't want our military veterans to have an us/them mindset about civilians and civic responsibilities. The UCMJ is more stringent than US Code, but it's only applicable to one on active duty. (As I understand it, this is one of the circumstances that gave Maj Cook - an inactive reservist given orders to activate - the opportunity to leverage civil courts.)

As a military retiree, I would not want current and future military members to think their rights and responsibilities as citizens are permanently affected because of their service - and I don't think they are.

I would really like to understand why you wouldn't want to serve with him.

[PA Engineer]

Wow. See my post above yours.

[wastedyears]

God bless you, Soldier.

[montanajoe]

No its not as easy as that. All this reliance of Nuremberg is wrong because Nuremberg established, with judges from the USA, Britain, France and the USSR sitting on that tribunal, that a soldier could and must disobey a lawful order to commit genocide. The Nuremberg trials establish no precedent (assuming you would permit such a international tribunal to say so) that a soldier refusing to follow the order of a US president because he personally believes it is unlawful is justified because he believes it violates the US constitution. Soldiers whether officers or enlisted are not free to apply their interpretation of the constitution to the orders of their superiors.