To our younger readers let me tell you a little story about murder, massacre and the meaning of military orders.
You see, during the Nuremberg trials following World War II the standard of military conduct was clearly established that following illegal orders was no defense to criminal actions taken under those orders. In that instance the orders in question had to do with the torture and murder of millions of prisoners, mostly Jews, in concentration camps established by Hitler. In other words, the standard was that a soldier could not raise in his defense that he was "just following orders".
Then along came Vietnam. And during that "conflict" a famous case of alleged murder, torture and sexual abuse by American soldiers came to light. It was later called the "My Lai Massacre" (pronounced Me-lie). Several members of the United States military were called up on charges before a Court Martial. Some defended that they were "just following orders" which resulted in the murder of civilians in the villiage of My Lai. The most memorable of the actors in that event was Lieutenant William Calley who stood trial for the murder, was convicted but later had his sentence reduced. According to military generals, they reduced his sentence because he was "following orders".
Now the question of when a military man is required to follow "illegal" orders has once again been brought into focus by the lawsuit involving a reserve officer from Florida who challenged his deployment orders in Federal Court on the grounds that current president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, is illegally occupying the office of commander in chief.
The lawsuit claims that Obama does not qualify to be president because he was not "born in the USA." According to World Net Daily, a website which has been pushing this issue very hard, after filing the suit the military "revoked" the deployment order issued to the reserve officer.
His attorney, Orly Taitz, confirmed to WND the military has rescinded his impending deployment orders.
"We won! We won before we even arrived," she said with
excitement. "It means that the military has nothing to show for Obama.
It means that the military has directly responded by saying Obama is
illegitimate – and they cannot fight it. Therefore, they are revoking
the order!"
She continued, "They just said, 'Order revoked.' No explanation. No reasons – just revoked."
A hearing on the questions raised by Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, an engineer
who told WND he wants to serve his country in Afghanistan, was scheduled for July 16 at 9:30 a.m.
"As an officer in the armed forces of the United States, it is [my]
duty to gain clarification on any order we may believe illegal. With
that said, if President Obama is found not to be a 'natural-born
citizen,' he is not eligible to be commander-in-chief," he told WND
only hours after the case was filed.
"[Then] any order coming out of the presidency or his chain of command
is illegal. Should I deploy, I would essentially be following an
illegal [order]. If I happened to be captured by the enemy in a foreign
land, I would not be privy to the Geneva Convention protections," he
said.