OK, then, this is not a general authorization of war, but an authorization for THE PRESIDENT to use force. Therefore the current deployments are at the direction of Obama and any current deployment must be at the direction of the President.
I think this strengthens Lakin's position. The joint resolution merely passed the authorization to use force to the president and therefore if the president is not constitutionally eligible to be the president, then Lakin would not be constitutionally required to comply with the deployment orders.
The resolution may have been open ended, but the power to deploy any troops in combat in Afghanistan belongs only the president. The president must therefore be willing to prove his eligibility to deploy the troops before any officer should be required to comply. Officers give their oath of allegiance to the Constitution and not the president. Lakin is merely demanding proof that the orders are constitutional before he complies.
Maybe Obama is just hiding his BC in order to make guys like Lakin look like fools. But even fools are entitled to proof of the constitutionality of an order from the "president" before being placed in a position where they will be giving orders to their underlings that they must obey, orders which can put those under their command at risk of death.
A court martial board is convened by military orders. Lakin’s defense says that all military orders given since Jan 2009 are illegal and not to be obeyed - which would include the orders forming the board.
He is asking them to decide a question they have no jurisdiction on: “Is Obama a natural born citizen qualified to be President?”
If Lakin had his way, the Board would find “All orders since Jan 2009 have been illegal. Thus the order forming this board is illegal, as are the orders for any serviceman to go anywhere and do anything...so since this is not a real court martial, and since none of us has real, binding orders, we’re all just going to go home and see what happens.”
Won’t happen.
If Lakin really had a problem with Obama being eligible, he should have resigned his commission. He didn’t, and now he’ll have to pay the piper. My guess is dismissal, but we’ll see.