re: "Obama, Libya Bombing and the UCMJ"

Sean Osborne, Associate Director at the Northeast Intelligence Network ("Investigating threats to our homeland") follows the logical consequences.

Money quote(s):

"President Obama fully and intentionally skirted the U.S. Constitution in illegally ordering the Pentagon to commence acts of war against Libya. In light of this fact President Obama’s orders to the U.S. military to execute these attacks in Libya constitutes an illegal order under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Members of the US Armed Forces who obey illegal orders are subject to criminal prosecution." (Emphasis in original text. - CAA)

A similar thought had crossed my mind. We're really in uncharted waters here; up until now presidents have been pretty careful about following the forms of, for instance, the War Powers Act, even if they've denied its Constitutionality.

"The UCMJ allows for the disobedience of illegal orders because such orders constitute a crime, or be part of a criminal conspiracy, either under military, civilian or international law."

Will we see a sequel to H.R. McMasters' classic "Dereliction of Duty" that addresses this someday? Given the current over-lawyered condition of our military and naval forces, it approaches undeniable implausibility that some staff judge advocate hasn't looked at their principal's legal exposure in this regard.

re: "Making Sense of Chaos "

Sean Osborne, Associate Director at Northeast Intelligence Network ("Investigating threats to our homeland") mixes good information with some obvious ideological axe-grinding.

Money quote(s)"

"(T)his administration’s blatant “ideologically motivated” incompetence and deliberate “strategic dementia” is leading the world down a path to an apocalypse which the Iranian Ayatollah and his sock puppet so fervently dream of. Indeed, all that will soon be left is for the Iranian’s to step in to fill the vacuum the Obama Administration is creating."

That's a little alarmist, at least in terms of Iran's ability (note, I don't say desire) to step up to anything.

"Unlike the Inept-in-Chief, his Ikhwan advisors and appointed incompetents in the U.S. State Department who have been attempting to micromanage the crisis in Egypt via remote control, there are other forces at work that have real boots on the ground in the former land of the Pharaohs."

Well, I suppose it's some progress that the author differentiates between the "appointed incompetents" at State from us career ones.

"When Obama & Company declared that the transition from Hosni Mubarak’s rule to whatever is supposed to come next had to begin “now” with Mubarak’s immediate resignation, they utterly failed to account for specific provisions of the Egyptian Constitution."

That, for me, echoed similar miscomprehensions about Honduras' constitution.

(Is it really too much to ask that States' country desk officers keep a translation of "their" country's constitution somewhere handy?)