Lt. Col. Terry Lakin

"I am hoping that the psychologist who assessed Terry will read [Larkin's biography]. If he does, he will no longer ask why Lt. Col. Lakin did what he did, but rather why others who had sworn to defend the Constitution — Congress included — did not do the same."

Cashill nails it, doesn't he? The real tragedy isn't the one man who took his oath seriously and stood by the Constitution. Larkin is a hero, not a tragic figure, because he did the right thing and kept his honor, regardless of what he suffered for doing so.

Now, I won't deeply fault others who just didn't see the issue his way, much less didn't see it as related to their oath, but there must have been plenty of people who did have his questions, who did see the Constitutional and honorable issues at stake, who did take their oaths seriously, yet not seriously enough to stand up as he did. I hesitate to call cowardice on anyone, having no surfeit of courage myself, but you'd think, out of all the military personnel, more than just one man would do this, even after seeing what happened to him, and maybe even especially after what happened to him.

To the unthinking world, all alone, you're just one nut. Where were his brothers in arms and spirit? Where was the First Follower, who gave courage to the next and the next, as movements must build? Every person who knew better but did not join him, even unto ruin of career and prison, is complicit in doing him such injustice. He was the one who stood up first, with whom others should have quickly joined in, until the very idea of stripping rank from and imprisoning all of them was unthinkable. Even without a movement, I expected at least a couple more. Nothing!

To be fair, I have to admit, giving up your service to your country (much less your freedom) in the service of your country is a tough choice the like of which I hope I never have to face.

Never forgetting, these are just symptoms, the larger matter is, of course, the soon-to-be-ex-Commander-in-Chief's invisible life itself -- his still-hidden past.