The Oath of Enlistment was Re: [extropy-chat] Re: Meta: Too far

[Brett Paatsch]

The Avantguardian wrote:

> This is the Oath of Enlistment that I and all American
> soldiers swear upon joining the military:
> 
> "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." (Title 10, US
> Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first
> adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October
> 1962)."
> 
> I bring to your attention the part that goes:
> "and that I will obey the orders of the President of
> the United States and the orders of the officers
> appointed over me . . ."
> 
> Notice it does not say, ". . . unless the President
> lies or is an asshole." It is an oath sworn to the
> office of the President and not any particular person
> holding that office. Thus one is honor bound to obey
> even a jackass like Bush so long as he IS the
> President.
> Is this clear enough?

Its clear to me. And an important fact. Thanks for bringing
it up. 

I don't mean to get too gratuitous in the forking of threads
but I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't forget this fact
as I mull over some others that Mike is presenting. 

Sometimes, as I have to do other things as well, I can't 
keep up with the rate at which threads move along, and alas 
*sometimes* I find that I want to pick up discussion on a 
point later but my empassioned friends have fired so many
heated shots that they seem to retire battle weary when the 
solutions might have been within grasp. And then it can be
hard to get the conversation going again. So, I'm putting this
here as a sort  of piton, to fall back to :-)

Brett Paatsch