[Background note, Ret. Capt., U.S. Army]
Personally I have no advanced legal knowledge of the code in question. Again within the Army we have our own legal experts that know more about the laws than the rest of the non-legal types, just like in the real world you have an idea as to how to obey the laws but legal professionals know the nitty gritty.
However it’s my basic feeling that Article 88 is supposed to work like this. The military is supposed to be impartial in political matters, the founders had read far too many historical stories of political military leaders interfering with the governing process.
While members of the military have been given the right to vote, you have to understand you have to put everything secondary to your military obligations. So while you wouldn’t necessarily be breaking the code just by speaking out against some policies of George W. Bush, it would be somewhat improper, especially for a high ranking officer, to do so in public.
Furthermore it has always been seen as a bit inappropriate to speak badly about your CO. And any problems you have with your CO should be dealt with privately and never in front of enlisted men or anyone of lower rank, or anyone else for that matter.
You must never call into question the leader’s leadership or status, it’s just not how things are done. And in the grand scheme of things ultimately the head CO for the entire U.S. Armed Forces is the President.
And everyone here must also realize just what the armed forces are. It is an organization whose members give up some of their Constitutional rights in order to serve their country.
One of the most prominent of those rights we give up is liberty. In the strictest sense military men are not free. While one can usually slither out of the military if you really want out, typically you must serve your enlistment, you don’t have the right to just up and quit. And in the military and order has the force of law. If you disobey and order, you have actually broken a law and can be tried, convicted, and punished in court for it.
There’s no reason to get into the why and how of that right now, but ultimately I think that is how things have to be to run a military.
But keep that in mind before you think that the rules and regulations are a bit too draconian or anti-democratic in nature.