Objectivism and The Armed Forces


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Correct me if I am wrong, I am not too great on this subject but I was watching tv yesterday and a commercial about the military came on, in this commercial one of the mottos was to always follow the orders given from above you. Why would we have such a motto, isn't it mottos like that, that gave the nazi soldiers an excuse to hurt innocent people?

Thanks,

David C.

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Correct me if I am wrong, I am not too great on this subject but I was watching tv yesterday and a commercial about the military came on, in this commercial one of the mottos was to always follow the orders given from above you. Why would we have such a motto, isn't it mottos like that, that gave the nazi soldiers an excuse to hurt innocent people?

Thanks,

David C.

Our soldiers are expected to know the difference between legal orders and illegal orders. Refusal to carry out an illegal order is a defense in a court martial trial.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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So they can disobey orders if they think they are wrong or immoral or just if they are illegal?

David C.

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So they can disobey orders if they think they are wrong or immoral or just if they are illegal?

David C.

Illegal which means contrary to conventions which the U.S. has signed such as the Geneva Convention and any restrictions imposed by U.S. law and Presidential order on military actions. Morality as such is far to subjective to stand on its own in court.

Included in that is mistreatment of prisoners of war. In WW II, Marines were happy to obey illegal orders to take no Japanese prisoners or to kill Japanese prisoners after information was extracted.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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I recall a Newsweek article a long way back (roughly)which reported on the US military introducing statutes which enabled any soldier to countermand a superior's orders if he thought them immoral.

I remember because it impressed me so greatly. It was quite a revolutionary idea at the time; I know the British Army did not have this then. Now, I don't know.

It was a response to the infamous My Lai(Vietnam)killings of villagers, I believe.

Objectivist? Yup, I'd say certainly.

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