I Have a question

[skeets]

If this becomes to political or out of hand, please remove this post!
Yesterday on the radio I heard that some members of our elected officials have been telling enlisted personal that it is permissible to disobey orders if they feel it is an unjust order. I don't understand how they can say such a thing. For my time in service, you did what you were told to do, no matter how you felt, there were no feelings involved. We took an oath to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic, that was our jobs. I know there are widespread feeling on both sides, so am I confused or what ?

 

[PHPaul]

That is sedition on the part of the pols advocating it, for which they should be prosecuted.

As far as the military personnel go, you WILL be court martialed to determine if you were or were not justified in disobeying/ignoring the order. If the court finds you were NOT justified, the rest of your day and a significant portion of the rest of your life will go very badly indeed.

 

[hagrid]

The Nuremberg Trials made it clear that "I was just following orders" was insufficient defense from the noose.

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

It’s some DBs / AHs trying to ignite some anarchy in yet another area of the culture as a whole where none is needed.

that it continues is a big data point to me.

 

[fatjay]

One of the local political morons did it. It is sedition. She should go to jail on that alone, let alone the other things she has said.

They're trying to destroy our country. Our military is #1 for a reason, we operate as one with one mission. As soon as everyone starts to think that orders are optional and they can do what they want, things will fall quickly.

 

[Steve67]

Like you I’m a Vietnam vet and I think you would agree My Lai should not have happened, even though we can understand the mental stress of combat in that fking situation

 

[chim]

There were orders given to soldiers almost a century ago that involved terrible atrocities. In that case not following orders would have been the best thing to do. Other than something like that.......................

 

[armylifer]

Disobeying an unlawful order is the right thing to do, morally. However, who decides what is lawful? The answer is; we the people decide what is lawful. We do that on election day. The President was lawfully chosen by the people to be the Commander In Chief. The constitution of The Untied States Of America gives him that authority, plain and simple. That has been reinforced several times by The Supreme Court Of The United States. If one chooses to disobey an order, they had better be very certain that it was not a lawful order.

No one person has the right to decide what a lawful order is. One can object to an order for several reasons, but one person does not have the right to decide what is lawful. The oath taken voluntarily by each service member states that he/she will obey the orders of those officers appointed over him/her. It is possible for an officer to give an unlawful order, but that is a very narrow scope of action. If one decides to disobey an order that they deem unlawful, they must defend their decision in a military court, mostly by way of a Courts Martial. Take note of what I said; one must defend their decision because the law presumes that military orders are lawful, and stem from the authority of The Commander In Chief.

I took that oath each time I enlisted and re-enlisted in the US Army. I never took that oath for granted and I did not take it lightly. I knew what I was pledging and did it willingly and with forethought and prayer.

May God bless our Country and those leaders duly elected to serve. Amen

 

[TheOldHokie]

The Nuremberg Trials made it clear that "I was just following orders" was insufficient defense from the noose.

My Lai is a more modern US example. Calley was initially given life

 

[Henro]

My understanding is that the individuals that voiced that thought were all military veterans that are serving in government. They stated military personnel should NOT obey ILLEGAL ORDERS.

I don't believe feelings played any part in their statement. I could be wrong...but promoting blind following of illegal orders does not seem like the American way to me.

 

[fatjay]

There's also protests claiming what ICE is doing is illegal. It's a mind game. You don't have to follow illegal orders, followed immediately by your order is illegal. Despite there being nothing illegal about it.

 

[Scm]

I am that guy.
The military should not even exist in a free society.
But we are nowhere near that anymore.

 

[lynnmor]

If you knew that those were unarmed civilians running away, would you drop them if so ordered?

 

[Mark_BX25D]

It is not sedition to remind soldiers that they have a moral AND a legal OBLIGATION to disobey unlawful orders, such as gunning down unarmed civilians.

However, the individual who made the noise about it was pressed on what unlawful orders have been given, and could not come up with any.

It was political grandstanding, and nothing more.

I note that when I served, my oath stated that I swore to obey all LAWFUL orders. I understand that word, "lawful" has been removed from the oath.

That should trouble all of us.

 

[D2Cat]

Here's a link describing the massacre and who was involved, coverup, etc. Sickening.

My Lai massacre - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org