U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector with the intent to stall and eventually prevent an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. In the 20-page document -- filed July 8 with the United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia -- Cook's California-based attorney, Orly Taitz, asks the court to consider granting his client's request based upon Cook's belief that President Barrack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of U.S Armed Forces. Cook further states he "would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President's command, and that Plaintiff would thus be simultaneously unable to perform his duties in good Rule 65(b) Application for Temporary Restraining Order 22 conscience and yet be simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties."
I'm going to work very hard not to descend into the realm of cheap personal insults here...though it's admittedly going to be a challenge. I can understand a soldier simply not wanting to deploy to a war he feels is unjust. Having been a soldier once upon a time myself, I can at least begin to understand Cook's trepidation. Dissent is the cornerstone of democracy, after all. Ignorance and the willingness to ignore the truth is, however, the cornerstone of what can only adequately and fairly be described as idiocracy- the willingness to react rather than think, and the ability to believe lies and propaganda no matter how many times they've been debunked and proven not just inaccurate, but horribly, irrertrievably wrong.
The canard that Barack Obama is not a natural-born American has been debunked more times than I care to remember. Despite this, mental midgets like MAJ Cook latch onto it whenever it happens to serve their purpose. Personally, I'm not certain that MAJ Cook is stupid enough to actually believe that President Obama's birth certificate is a clever forgery. Then again....
President Obama is an American citizen. John McCain was the one born outside the US- the Panama Canal Zone...and yet how many people raised a fuss? If you follow the letter of the law, McCain was ineligible to run for President- yet how many in the media or on the Left made this an issue? It shouldn't have been an issue...and it wasn't. Why is Barack Obama being regarded differently? Gee, d'ya think it might have something to do with the color of his skin? President Obama was actually born on American soil...and yet there are still those like MAJ Cook ignorant and silly enough to continue to hang onto the canard that he was born outside the US and is therefore an illegitimate President? Get a grip, willya?
I would never question MAJ Cook's patriotism. That seems to be the weapon of choice of the Far Right, and I'll leave that to them. What I would question, however, is Cook's intelligence and his grip on reality. If Cook is opposed to the war he's being deployed to, he's free to speak his mind and do what he feels is right. To question President Obama's citizenship only reveals him to be ignorant of the truth and a slave to his own artificially-constructed reality. Then again, being open to and able to accept the truth has never been a characteristic associated with the residents of the Far Right. MAJ Cook and his ilk will continue to believe what they will, truth be damned. Same as it ever was....
WE DESERVE BETTER.
UPDATE: Ignorance is silly. Aggressive ignorance will quite often get you what you want, as MAJ Cook's deployment order's have been revoked. Sorry, but I'm going to break my "no personal attacks" rule here...if only because it's richly deserved. MAJ Cook has ably demonstrated himself to be a liar, a master propagandist, AND a jackass of the first order. I can only hope that he will be visited by a healthy dose of karma....
