The Betrayal of Michael New.

Z

Zensho

New member
I opened my mail today and found a letter and request for Army medic Michael New's legal fund. Ive never heard of the case so I did some research on the net and found the official site for his legal battle.
Something to think about http://www.mikenew.com/
 
Look around the site, sometime in the past I read about New's previous run-ins with former C.O.'s. IIRC he had a few Article 15's (Again IIRC they were for insubordination).

It appears that New didn't want to go to Macedonia, and this was a way of avoiding it.
IIRC he never made an issue of the "legalities" prior the formation in which he refused to wear the insignia.
Mike New isn't the perfect poster child for an anti NWO.

Now, personally I think he went about it all wrong. Raise as big a fuss from the get-go as possible. Don't wait til the last minute.

I don't agree with the idea of placing US troops under anything but a US leader. And these little "hot-spot" conflicts don't cut it either. If US troops deploy there needs to be a damn good reason. Coming to aid in all these "civil" internal wars needs to stop. If the people fighting amongst themselves want to fight, no amount of "peacekeepers" are going to stop them. It only winds up costing American troops their lives.

We need to get out of the "peacekeeping" business and get back into the good, honest to god, "warfighting" business.

Gator
 
Fred, an order to wear UN insignia, or the insignia of any other country's armed forces on your uniform is ILLEGAL according to the UCMJ.

New isn't a model soldier, no, but he belayed an illegal order and was punished for doing. DO you see the contradiction here?
 
Coinneach:

I've been in the military over 20 years. How is wearing the UN patch illegal according to the UCMJ? Please quote the specific portion of the UCMJ that states this.

If it is, then everytime I walked into the DMZ in Korea with my DMZ MP armband, that has the US, Korean and UN flag on it, I broke the UCMJ, right?

Fred
 
Here's the text from Pat Buchanan's speech to the Texas GOP Convention back in '96 regarding Michael New.

"Let me talk to you now, about a Texan, a patriot, a Christian, and a soldier named Michael New.

[applause and cheering]

Let me tell you the story, a story about this young 23 year old man, American, joined the service of his country, was sent to Germany, performed admirably in his service, was decorated, and then Bill Clinton ordered him into Macedonia and told him: "Michael New, you have to wear UN insignia, you've got to put on a UN helmet and you got to take orders from UN officers, and you got to take an oath, an oath as a UN peacekeeper." Now, Michael New looked at that oath, and that oath said, " Our loyalty to this United Nations unit is above any other oath, or loyalty we have ever taken."

[crowd boos]

So Michael New said "I can't take that oath, because I am a soldier in the Army of the United States, and my oath is to the Constitution of the United States."

[continued applause]

So his commander in chief, Bill Clinton, had this young Texas patriot court-martialled, stripped of his rank, and discharged from the service of his country!

[crowd boos]

But it's not Michael New that ought to be discharged from the service of his country! It is Bill Clinton who's going to be discharged from the service of his country!

[applause & cheering]

And I tell ya',

[more cheering]

you know, and when we get that President in there, to replace Bill Clinton, I think he's going to pardon Michael New, but I am not sure about Bill & Hillary!
 
Fred, from the information I have, New was ordered to REMOVE his US insignia and REPLACE it with UN gear.

Sorry, I don't have a copy of the UCMJ sitting on my desk as I got out 8 years ago, but as I recall from my time in, no soldier may be placed under the command of any agency other than the US government.
 
Coinneach:

The US troops in Macedonia were operating under a UN mandate to be there. That gave the legal authority to be in another soverign country (and Macedonia had authority to stop it at anytime). Command and Control of the US units and soldiers renmained under US command. They always do. So no law was broken there. When I'm at work, I'll look and see if I have the command set up for the Macedonia operation. (I bet with a real good search, you'll find a congressional authorization for the operation)

Army soldiers do not wear "US" insignia on their BUS except for the US Army tape over the left breast pocket. On the left sholder is the unit patch of assignment on the right sholder as soldier may wear the patch of the unit he went into combat with.

In New's case (and I don't know the exact specifics)he was ordered to sew a UN flag on one of his sholders. This is not a violation of any rule or regulation as commander's can make those decisions. New decided to protest this by refusing to put this patch on and was punished for it.

He could have written his congressman, newspaper and what not to tell his tale, but he cannot disobey a lawful order given to him by his commander. If we allow that, then where the heck will our army be without discipline? (if anyone compares this to the Germans obeying Nazi orders all I can say is you are clueless).

We have soldiers in the Sinai under UN mandate and they have been there a long time wearing UN insignia. Nobody is complaining about that.

New was a fool and poor soldier. He got used by politicians (see note above on Pat Buchanan)and got punished in the army for an act he could have avoided.
 
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