IN DEFENSE OF MICHAEL NEW

"... and by peace shall destroy many:"
Daniel 8:25

Spc. Michael G. New is a 22 year-old soldier from Texas who enlisted in the "all volunteer" U.S. Army two and one-half years ago. He is an "exemplary soldier." As a medic, he has saved a fellow soldier's life in a training emergency, and because of quick action he was given a medal for saving the eyes and vision of another soldier. Because Michael has exhibited strong leadership skills, the Army encouraged him to apply for the Army "green to gold" program to become an officer.

Michael is now in Germany. On August 21, 1995, he was informed that he would be shipping out to Macedonia for U.N. peacekeeping, but this deployment would be different than when he was deployed to Kuwait two years before. Michael was informed he would have to surrender his U.S. uniform and wear the "U.N. uniform" and he would not be serving under U.S. command but rather under foreign officers and under U.N. command. As an American, Michael was troubled and expressed to his command his hesitation at losing his American uniform and status as a U.S. fighting man. Michael was unaware that he would become "U.N. personnel" and come under restrictive U.N. rules of engagement similar to those deadly limitations which crippled our forces in Vietnam and more recently in Somalia. Michael asked the Army for justification for transferring him involuntarily into the military service of a foreign government, but the Army failed to provide him with written justification for their order.

"And at that time shall Michael stand up,"
Daniel 12:1

Michael is willing to fight. He offered to go to Macedonia in his U.S. Army uniform. That was not possible. The Army informed him that, if did not surrender his U.S. Army uniform, he could be put in "jail, court martialed or less-than-honorably discharged." An army lawyer tried to get Spc. New to apply as a conscientious objector to obtain an immediate honorable discharge. Michael declined because he was not a CO. He was willing to "support and defend" the Constitution as he said in his oath. On October 10, 1995, Michael appeared in formation in his American uniform amid a sea of baby blue and respectfully refused to surrender his U.S. uniform and wear the U.N. uniform. His once bright future in the Army is suddenly now very uncertain.

On October 19,1995, Spc. New was served with a single specification of violating Article 92 of the UCMJ, i.e., failure to obey a lawful order of a senior officer. Spc. Michael New was arraigned before a military judge Tuesday, October 24, 1995, in Germany. Michael's mother and father are stunned and heart-sick at the Army's betrayal of their son by court martialing him for his unyielding allegiance to the Constitution and the American Army he joined. The News resent the lack of moral courage and leadership on the part of many of our elected representatives who have repeatedly evaded their Constitutional responsibilities which has enabled an American president, in concert only with the U.N., to commit acts of war in the name of "peace" without constitutionally required Congressional approval. Thus defending the constitutional oath has been passed down to the Corporal's level.

The News never thought Michael's unswerving love, allegiance and faithfulness to his country and the oath he took "to support and defend the Constitution [not the U.N. Charter] against enemies foreign and domestic" would lead to a court martial which may cost him his liberty. Michael's only offense was to love America's One Nation Under God and the U.S. Army oath more than the U.N. baby blue and the U.N. Charter it represents. Specialist New knows it is more serious to obey an illegal order than to resist such an order despite the Court Martial.

Young Spc. New is bravely acting as free Americans have since 1776 by standing steadfast and independent against an illegal order from verreaching authority to serve a foreign power. The U.N. is a separate international government, thus a foreign power, and based on 50 years of Security Council votes, much of the time the United Nations has been, with regard to American first principles, values and interests, a hostile foreign power. Forty-four congressmen and women stood with Specialist New and on October 6, 1995, demanded that the President provide justification for the orders to New and others. Congressman Tom DeLay offered a bill to prohibit such orders in the future for U.S. soldiers to wear U.N. uniforms and insignia.

"The Savage Wars of Peace"
Rudyard Kipling

In the 60s, Bill clinton avoided the draft and vigorously but comfortably protested at home and overseas against America while his fellow Americans were fighting and dying in the mud of rice paddies and jungles half a world away. Clinton objected to a war he claimed was illegal and immoral. He decried the nation which, in an effort to contain the worldwide spread of communism, sent willing young men, like me and countless others, "to stop communism and fight for freedom in South Vietnam."

Bill Clinton has come a long way from the 1960's anti-american war protester. Today with the threat of communism pronounced "dead," it is President Clinton in the 1990's who is committing acts of "peace" by ending 20,000 sons and daughters of the Vietnam veterans' generation in harm's way. This time they go to the Balkans, a foreign land like Vietnam ripped apart for centuries by ancient struggles where Americans again serve under arbitrary rules of engagement and also now under the "operational control" of the U.N., a foreign and often hostile international government. Clinton, like his predecessors, intervenes in this foreign sovereign nation with only a vague constitutional justification untroubled by the non-existent American interest.

For those who rely on history's lessons and do not accept the Clinton's anthem that "yesterday's gone," the founders and U.S. Constitutional limitations still guide us today. National boundaries and battlefields may change over time, but fallen human nature with its covetous ambition remains a constant. Drawing upon the wisdom of the ages, George Washington, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and others who understood that government was "a constant threat to liberty" provided clear protections for our independence through limited government and separated powers particularly for war and peace in Articles I and II of the Constitution. Sadly, since World War II the Constitution is often ignored, violated and covered over by verbal subterfuge by many elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

In the Balkans, American troops are engaged in a military mission driven more by an international political agenda than by American defense priorities. U.S. troops wear baby blue "U.N. uniforms," drive as targets in white vehicles, and serve under foreign command and in the service of a foreign power. They have ceased to be soldiers. Policy Wonks like Walt Rostow and Robert Strange McNamara in the 60s, and Perry, Christopher and security risks like Morton Halprin in the 90s, both contrived extensive and restrictive rules of engagement for grunts in the field like me in Vietnam then and Michael New now.

The most recent example is Captain Scott O'Grady, U.S. Air Force. U.N. rules of engagement prevented pilots from attacking surface-to-air missile (SAMS) sites and O'Grady was shot down over Bosnia. These sites were well known to military commanders who wanted to take them out before the strike, but under the United Nations rules of engagement those SAMS sites which shot Captain O'Grady were not considered "hostile" and thus, there was no authorization to take them out when common sense and American military security demanded otherwise. U.N. rules of engagement blocked U.S. forces from retaliating after the Captain was shot down or even when he was threatened. Colorado Senator Hank Brown complained bitterly this past June after accurate reports of the action were revealed which "directly contradicted" testimony before a Senate Committee by Clinton Defense and State officials. Senator Brown said:

What we have done is treat our soldiers like pawns in a chess game. The failure to take out the missile sites shows a glaring disregard for the safety of our U.S. pilots.