Hi Adam :)
Actually, it is beyond a moral obligation (remember morals are based
on a person's beliefs), all members of the military services are required
to respectfully refuse to follow and/or carry out any orders given by a
superior that are not lawful and legal. The question of whether or not a
person is superior to another is based on if they are in a position of
authority or their rank exceeds that of the order's recipient (this can
include issues of date of rank between 2 or more personnel of the same
rank) or has had authority delegated to them in accordance with all
applicable rules, regs and laws.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Laws of the United States of
America, the laws of the state where the issuance of the order occurs, the
laws of the host country and any applicable reguluations of the current
military authority are used to decide if an order is lawful and legal.
Hence, as a SFC I cannot tell a SSG or below to get me a cup of
coffee. This violates the regs regarding personal servitude (sp). Nor can
I tell anyone under my command to violate the Geneva Convention, as this
would be a UCMJ violation. Note that this is a very hard subject to teach
to junior NCO's as we have to get them away from the concept of right and
wrong and to the concept of 'what do the rules, regs, UCMJ and the Laws of
the U.S. and the Laws of the Host Nation say is lawful and legal? Right
and Wrong is hard... what is 'right' to a person raised in the middle east
could be different than what a person raised in Maryland or Oregon think is
'right'.
A Protester interviewed on KGW (Portland NBC affliate) last night
commented the as long as no one was hurt, property destruction was ok...
this was his answer when asked if he condoned the fire bombing of a
StarBucks coffee shop on Division Street in Portland. His definition of
'right' definitely differs from mine! And I am willing to bet he would
change his definitioin of 'right' if someone were to decide to destroy
something of his??
Art "just thinkin' and ramblin' " Bahrs
=======================================================
Art Bahrs, CISSP Information Security The Regence Group
(503) 553-1425 FAX (503) 553-1453
|---------+-------------------------------->
| | "Adam Dorritie" |
| | <[log in to unmask]
| | COM> |
| | Sent by: "HP-3000 |
| | Systems Discussion" |
| | <[log in to unmask]
| | DU> |
| | |
| | |
| | 05/06/2004 07:54 AM |
| | Please respond to |
| | "Adam Dorritie" |
| | |
| | |-------------------||
| | | [ ] Secure E-mail ||
| | |-------------------||
|---------+-------------------------------->
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: [log in to unmask] |
| cc: |
| Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT:POW Mistreatment (was:Most un-informed preside nt in History?) |
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
For the same reason that the Nazi's were denied the defense "I was only
following orders" at the trials in Nuremberg.
Servicefolk have a moral obligation to refuse to obey unlawful orders,
regardless of their source. To suggest that they didn't know better
demeans those many who serve (and have served) with honor.
Scott Gates <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
<snip>
>Second, if the acts WERE authorized by military intelligence, WHY are the
>MP's bearing the consequences?
* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
|
