Toad #84:

I wrote an article on the Oath in 1999 pointing out that US military missions such as we did in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Haiti just don’t fit it. I cannot imagine how whether someone in a foreign country shoots his next door neighbor can be considered as imperiling the US Constitution.

Now WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, I see no problem with in that respect. As I think Pres G.H.W. Bush put it once, Americans inevitably die far from home in order to “protect their beloved homes from the war’s desolation” to use the language of a certain song.

And temporary missions for hurricane relief or to deliver food are not really military missions and in any case are short lived affairs. But combat missions that do not involve a real threat to the USA do not fit the oath.

Ask a politician about this and he will skip over the important part and go right to the “Obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed by him.” They don’t want to tackle the hard part.

If I was administering The Oath today to a bunch of new people joining the US Military I would feel compelled to point out to them that it represents a sacred trust, and that unlike other people who speak the words, they WILL be held accountable to it.