LETTERS: SOLDIER STANDS ALONE

To the editor:

On Oct. 10, 1995, in Germany at a U.S. battalion formation, one man dressed in the U.S. Army regulation green battle dress uniform stood among 549 United Nations regulation uniforms capped with a baby-blue beret. That man was 22-year-old Specialist Michael New.

On Jan. 24, 1996, it took a military panel 10 minutes to convict New of violating a lawful order. His lawyers were not allowed to present any of the evidence proving that there was no lawful order given.

In the oath of enlistment, an enlisting person swears to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitutions states in part: "No person holding any office ... shall, without consent of Congress, accept ... office or title from any ... foreign state." The United Nations is a foreign government.

The oath also provides that the enlistee will obey the orders of the president and officers "according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Military regulations explicate regulation U.S. military uniforms, and the U.N. uniform isn't mentioned.

Specialist New was bound for Macedonia where his U.S. uniform would have been replaced with a U.N. uniform. His U.S. ID card would have been replaced with a U.N. ID card. And he would have served under foreign commanders. New wanted to know by what authority he was required to don the uniform of and serve a foreign government. The proper word to describe this order is "conscription."

The U.N. Participation Act of 1945 prohibits the president of the United States from assigning soldiers to U.N. military missions without prior congressional approval. Currently there are over 87,000 of our sons and daughters under the strategic direction of the U.N. Security Council. Over 27,000 are there by order of the president without congressional approval. President Bill Clinton is guilty of violating the law.

Something is very wrong here. Why aren't our congressmen insisting that justice be done? We have a president who orders our military to wear non-regulation uniforms, sends them off on unauthorized deployment, violates the terms of their enlistment by placing them under the command of foreign officers while we court-martial and convict the lone soldier who has the temerity to stand by his oath of allegiance to our America and contemplate re-electing a president who had betrayed his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" and who issues unlawful orders.

ANDY and SUZANNE NINICHUCK

Middlebrook