“No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”
So what master do U.S. servicemen serve: the U.S. Constitution or the United Nations Charter? The U.S. Army is trying to repeal the Biblical truism and tell our soldiers: Wear the red-white-and-blue U.S. Flag on the subordinate left arm, the blue UN insignia on the senior right arm, and cap it off with the UN blue helmet or the UN blue beret.
For at least three years in the Balkans and elsewhere, the U.S. Army has been quietly pursuing the practice of requiring American soldiers to wear these UN uniforms. Now, one brave soldier has had the temerity to dissent.
U.S. Army Specialist E-4 Michael G. New, a medic with the Third Infantry Division, will be arraigned this week in Germany, preparatory to a court martial, for the offense of disobeying the Army’s order to “appear in United Nations uniform” instead of his U.S. Army uniform.
The order to New is one implementation of Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD 25), in which Bill Clinton asserted his authority “to place U.S. forces under the operational control of a foreign commander.” The Clinton Administration has kept PDD 25 a secret document under lock and key, but the State Department “summary,” dated May 1994, contains enough information to enable us to challenge its constitutionality.
On August 21, New’s Army commanders informed him that he would soon be ordered to Macedonia as part of a UN “peacekeeping” operation, for which he would be required to wear the blue UN helmet and the blue UN arm band with UN insignia. These changes are meaningful and important; if they were not, then refusing to wear them would not result in a court-martial with the possible punishment of imprisonment or bad conduct discharge.
Incidentally, the force about to be detailed to Macedonia will be led by a commander from Finland, and the UN Under Secretary General in charge of the peacekeeping operation in the Balkans (get this!) is an Iraqi, Ismat Kittani.
Specialist New refused to wear the UN uniform. He says, “I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. My Army enlistment oath is to the Constitution. I cannot find any reference to the United Nations in that oath.”
New has consistently stated that he will obey all lawful orders, but he questions the legality of orders which he believes are unlawful and would transfer him from a volunteer American soldier under the American Constitution into an involuntary mercenary soldier under the United Nations. Under the U.S. Army’s Rules of Engagement for the UN “peacekeeping” operation, our U.S. forces are specifically defined as “United Nations personnel.”
New requested a full and complete legal justification for the orders he received, but he has not received any written response from the Army. He asserts that, “without a response from the Army about the justification, it is difficult if not impossible to judge the legality of any orders to become a UN soldier, and in the face of any doubt, I do not intend to surrender my status as an American soldier to wear the uniform of a foreign power.”
Specialist New’s service record proves that he is the kind of young man we hope will volunteer for the U.S. armed services. He has had an exceptionally exemplary military record throughout his 2-1/2 years of service, serving six weeks in Kuwait, and receiving several commendations and recommendations.
New was decorated with the Army Achievement Medal for saving the eyesight of a soldier injured when training ammunition exploded. On another occasion, New saved the life of a fellow soldier during a training emergency in California.
In his written statement to his superiors, New said, “I am not trying to avoid a difficult or dangerous assignment or to get out of the Army. I served in Kuwait last year and have offered to serve anywhere in the world, in my American uniform, in the capacity as a U.S. Army medic under American command and U.S. constitutional protections.”
“I simply cannot understand the legal basis of the Army order to change my uniform,” New continued, “and, thus, shift or alter my status and allegiance against my oath of enlistment, my conscience and against my will. Despite my requests for information up my chain of command, my questions about the justification and, thus, the lawfulness of such an order or about how my allegiance can be transferred to the UN without my approval have gone unanswered.”
When American soldiers were killed over Iraq, Vice President Al Gore told the widows and orphans of those men that “they died in the service of the United Nations.” That wasn’t a slip of the tongue; his words reveal the Clinton Administration’s plan to use our armed forces as UN mercenaries all over the world at the whim of UN bureaucrats.
Specialist New has raised the flag of patriotism against the Clinton-Gore goal. Michael New’s trial is our battle, if we care about America.
