If you choose to live in the delusion of your own making, so be it. It will bring you no comfort and you will never see it validated.
The truth just is what it is, whether anybody “validates” it or not. All we can do is either believe the truth, remain agnostic about it, or violate it.
The authority to use force was given only to the President. Anybody else “using appropriate force” without valid Presidential orders is acting out of line - giving orders beyond their authority, which renders those orders “not lawful” according to the very definitions of Article 92.
That’s just the truth. It is what it is. Unless you can show me someplace where Congress grants military officers the authority to use force without the President being involved, I have no choice but to believe this is the truth.