There was no lawful order if Obama is not Constitutionally able to “act as President”, and that depends on whether he “failed to qualify” by Jan 20, 2009 - according to the 20th Amendment.
To this day we don’t know if the orders Lakin received were lawful. That is all Lakin wanted to find out. It’s what he spent a year trying to get the military to ascertain. They refused.
As somebody commented to me privately, there is no military commander who can look at a soldier killed in action as a result of the order the commander gave - and honestly know whether the order he gave was lawful.
That is heavy stuff. Our military people are bearing a huge enough burden as it is; you and I both know that. They should not have to bear the burden of their conscience not knowing whether what they did was lawful. Sure, they’ve got cover in the MCM if they were “just following orders”. They’re not LEGALLY in trouble for it, but when you’re looking at a dead man’s family and in your heart you really don’t know what you’ve done, there’s more pressing on you than just what you can get away with.
And I know that because we have fantastic, conscientious leaders on the battlefield who truly care about their soldiers and about the Constitution. They are caught in the cross-fire here, and only a cad without a conscience who doesn’t give a rip for either the commanders or the foot-soldiers would trivialize the earnestness of these honorable men’s consciences.
Well, last time I looked, our military sees Obama as their commander-in-chief. Give it a rest!