May 6, 2016
By Bruce Ackerman
New Haven — IN May 2010, Nathan Michael Smith (click here) joined the Army, swearing an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He took up this mission on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and is now serving as a captain in Kuwait at the command headquarters of Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against the Islamic State that President Obama initiated in 2014.
By Bruce Ackerman
New Haven — IN May 2010, Nathan Michael Smith (click here) joined the Army, swearing an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He took up this mission on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and is now serving as a captain in Kuwait at the command headquarters of Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against the Islamic State that President Obama initiated in 2014.
The
president claims that Congress’s authorizations in 2001 and 2002 for
the wars against Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein can be stretched to cover
his current campaign. But many legal experts question his unilateral
assertion of power. Captain Smith became increasingly troubled as he saw
the president failing to persuade the House and Senate to stand up and
be counted. Does the captain’s participation in this undeclared war
involve him in a mission to destroy, not “defend,” the Constitution?
Captain Smith, 28, has now brought suit in federal court to request an independent judgment on whether he is betraying his oath....
