Posted on 10/21/2009 12:09:47 PM PDT by broken_arrow1
Truly malignant ideas crop up in a democracy with the frequency of toadstools after a summer rain storm. Most of these ideas are dismissed by the great majority of citizens after public debate in one fashion or another. Some of the ideas hang on despite evidence to the contrary (sorry Texas was readmitted to the Union and the Income Tax was ratified by the requisite number of states) but attract no real following.
Truly pernicious ideas, however, seem benign at first glance but in truth strike at the heart of our system of government. The “Oath Keeper” movement is one of those ideas.
At first blush, who can object to the 10 orders they say they will not obey. Until you start examining each of them in detail (we’ll put aside for now the mindboggling assertion in Lexington/Concord was precipitated by an attempt to “disarm” Americans).
1. We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey any order to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects — such as warrantless house-to house searches for weapons or persons.
3. We will NOT obey any order to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to trial by military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state, or to enter with force into a state, without the express consent and invitation of that state’s legislature and governor.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control” during any emergency, or under any other pretext. We will consider such use of foreign troops against our people to be an invasion and an act of war.
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies, under any emergency pretext whatsoever.
10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
In the case of a smallpox, or similar, outbreak it would not be unreasonable for any government to direct that a municipality or geographic area be put under quarantine. I would think most everyone would agree that would be a good thing. If there was an armed insurrection in some area of the country, I’d find it hard to object to warrantless searches of homes and the disarming of persons in the area of operations. We need look no farther than the actions of Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to see the utter imbecility of the federal government waiting for a state governor to declare an emergency before intervening. The nonsense purveyed by this group would have prevented Lincoln from opposing Secession and, more recently, it would have prevented Eisenhower from integrating public schools in Little Rock.These principles, if they deserve to be called that, are nonsense and against the American tradition of government as it has been understood since the Whiskey Rebellion was suppressed by George Washington.
Were flogging bad history the only issue at hand, I wouldn’t be writing this. I’d be encouraging them to get a degree in education and teach civics in junior high. But it isn’t. On one hand the oath these people take is meaningless as they seem to be people who aren’t currently bound by an oath anyway. But as a career infantry officer I am gravely offended that they could be encouraging some number of military members to break rather than keep their oath of office. As a conservative I am offended that anyone on my side of the political spectrum would support such un-American nonsense.
When you take the oath of office as a member of the Armed Forces you do not take on the character of a freelance constitutional scholar.
As a commissioned officer you are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate (yes, this is true for even second lieutenants), and you serve at the pleasure of the President.
Your oath reads:
“I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”
Read the oath carefully. There is not an Obama Exception to the oath. There isn’t a proviso that this oath is subsidiary to some grander more important oath you’ve taken. You agree to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office.” To men of honor and integrity — which, in an ideal world, should be the minimum requirement to hold a commission — your word is your bond, if you’ve taken this oath with mental reservations about the intentions of the President, you’ve already violated your oath. So you aren’t an “oath keeper” but an “oath breaker.”
For enlisted men the rules are even more clear.
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Read it again, slowly and carefully:
I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me
You’ll note there aren’t ten exceptions here. The Uniform Code of Military Justice places a significant burden off proof on anyone who disobeys an order on the grounds that the order wasn’t lawful. And once you’ve made the effort, the system doesn’t treat full-time soldiers and part-time constitutional scholars like Michael New with great deal of respect.
As a conservative I’m truly offended by this nonsense. This type organization, seemingly equal parts Walter Mitty and the black helicopter crowd, enables the left to lump all opponents of Obama together into a lunatic fringe that will then be studiously ignored. The Tea Parties were taken seriously by lots of members of Congress precisely because they were not lunatics. Polls show we are winning people over to our ideas. Why would anyone opposed to the Obama regime think this organization is a good idea?
In 1783, we were at a critical point in our struggle for nationhood. We had won independence but the form of government which would succeed the British monarchy was clearly up for grabs. There were calls for General George Washington to lead the nation either as a monarch or military dictator. In response, Washington went before the Continental Congress on December 23, 1783 and resigned his commission. That action, captured in a painting by John Turnbull on display in the Capitol Rotunda, paved the way for our republican system of government and our tradition of the civil supremacy in civil-military relations.
My advice to the “oath keepers” is just that. Keep your oath. If you want to make political decisions about how the military and police are used in this country, resign your position and agitate to your heart’s content. If you remain in uniform your oath binds you to the government and absent clear reason to the contrary, and none of the ten reasons set forward by the Oath Keeper organization meet that standard, you have a legal and moral obligation to faithfully carry out the duties given to you.
We are in a tough fight with this administration for very high stakes. The stakes, however, do not justify us checking our brain and our sanity at the door and signing onto truly bizarre and un-American ideas like those set out by the Oath Keepers.
Mike
“I pray to GOD everyday to protect those still in service. And to make the Officers over them intelligent and cautious.”
Amen, Brother, amen. You can say that again...and again...and again.
Yes!
They won’t even acknowledge the truth.
Because they are organized!
I couldn’t disagree more with whoever wrote this! For one...smallpox? Are you kidding me? That has basically been irradicated, and if something that lethal did break out we wouldn’t need the government to quarantine us because anybody with any sense in their head would quarantine themselves. This government wants sweeping laws in the event of something as weak as this H1N1 flu to create a fake pandemic crisis. Then they will enter our homes without warrant and it’s not to vaccinate us...it’s to take our guns! This whole thing is about trying to disarm the American people and that’s why we will not break our oath to the constitution.
Secondly...armed insurrection...well hell, there better not be, or the president and our military definitely aren’t doing there jobs. And if that was the case then an armed American populous is the next best thing and we would fight them and beat them! That’s the beauty of the 2nd amendment...we’re armed to the teeth and that’s why no “insurrection” would ever occur. However...this brings back the issue of my first point...this government and the international governments are creating laws to disarm us through UN and WHO rules where foreign soldiers will be allowed during a faked crisis or pandemic to seize our guns.
Thirdly...if the previous 2 situations do occur I will personally blame this obama character, because at that point it will be abundantly clear that he has violated his oath of office and to defend our constitution (which I believe he has already violated many times up to this point, but that’s another matter). When he violates his oath then we who have taken an oath or who otherwise as American patriots swear to defend the constitution and our country have not only the right but the responsibility to fight all enemies foreign or domestic...and at that time it will be clear that obama is a domestic enemy of the United States. So in no way would anyone who has taken the oath be breaking it by ignoring anything this worthless piece of garbage says whether still president or not.
There is absolutely nothing that is un-American about what the Oath Keepers believe in. On the contrary, it’s people like them and the rest of our patriotic citizens who are more American than this Marxist, Socialist, Communist loving “president” and all his radical Commie friends who are destroying this country from the inside out. They mean to destroy our constitution, our rights, our freedoms, our economy, our jobs, and our power as the number one nation this world has ever been lucky enough to have.
Americans know what’s going on and that’s why groups like this are and will be essential to preserving the freedom of America because this government has most definitely shown us that they hate this great country of ours. If this keeps up a day will come when we will have to go into action to defend America right here on our own soil. Hopefully that day will not come. Hopefully our military will take obama out and he will be put on trial for treason and be impeached. Then we can go to work to rebuild America the way it was meant by the words of the constitution and we’ll never let this travesty happen in our country again.
As do I.
The writer would have fit right in with the Nazis. He “vould just be following orders.”
Let’s say an officer orders his men to gang rape a 12 year old girl in a combat area. Would you like to think that YOUR son would be bound to comply with such an order?
The rule is that those under that oath have a right — indeed, a DUTY — to disregard any ILLEGAL or UNLAWFUL order if they are prepared to bear the consequences of doing so. That would include a military court martial or, in the case of a civilian official, a trial by a jury of his peers.
My dad was 101st Airborne. Bronze Star in the Bulge.
So one alledged “officer” gets uptight about it. Do we really expect everyone to join or even understand it?
There always will be some knucklehead who would shoot Americans because the CINC said so.
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
But when the President is opposed to the Constitution, which one do you obey?
Ping
Those are big boots to fill. We’re all going to be called to duty soon, I think.
BTTT
Why, no - they were out for a stroll looking for muffins. They were set upon by dangerous right-wing exremists. Just check any grade school textbook.
You have it right, sir!
I am also an OK - and I am with you.
Wow, Lexington/Concord _was_ about Britain trying to disarm the Colonists. This was the key point, _the_cause that led to the effect. Duh.
So what happens when the President of the United States is the Domestic Enemy of the Constitution of the United States?
There is no argument about anything that you said. The constitution is not a living doc as big Al tried to proclaim. I’m in full support of prosecution and immediate removal from office of any and all who swear the Constitutional oath and do not uphold that oath 100%. HOW we choose to act in order to enforce that is the question.
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