They talked about people like Hugh Thompson Jr. and the severe back pain he sustained from lugging around those massive balls.
Did they talk about that absolutely nobody from the My Lai massacre - the example you brought up - saw any real consequences, with only one guy - who killed 22 - serving 3.5 years before Nixon got him out?
Or that the highest ranking surviving Nazi, who had a real say in German leadership during the war, was Hitler’s trusted advisor and unrepentant, unwavering follower, even after the war, got off with 10 years since the US and the UK committed similar war crimes as he did, so they didn’t sentence him for that?
Or the Hague invasion act and US war crimes that precipitated it? Or the US war crimes since?
I think those guys will be just fine saying “I was just following the orders of the magnificent Cheeto”.
Nope! This is basic training we’re talking about. They teach only the details that accomplish the lesson. And the lesson was don’t follow illegal orders. If there’s more to the story that contradicts the lesson, you bet your ass it was omitted.
I guess my point was just because they tell you that you are going to get your ass kicked for committing war crimes does not mean they are not blatantly lying about it and that the US armed forcers would disobey illegal orders in a real, live situation.
That’s true - I guess we’ll see if and when it happens. But the training on that topic is pretty clear and heavily emphasized relative to other training. It’s also both a politically charged order and one that will elicit defensiveness even if it was made legal.
It’ll also cause a lot of infighting and heavily weaken our military, which would invite attacks from one (or more) of the nations we’ve pissed off with our shitty foreign policy… So there may well be troops taking to our streets shortly after that kind of order, but most likely not our troops.
Did they talk about that absolutely nobody from the My Lai massacre - the example you brought up - saw any real consequences, with only one guy - who killed 22 - serving 3.5 years before Nixon got him out?
Or that the highest ranking surviving Nazi, who had a real say in German leadership during the war, was Hitler’s trusted advisor and unrepentant, unwavering follower, even after the war, got off with 10 years since the US and the UK committed similar war crimes as he did, so they didn’t sentence him for that?
Or the Hague invasion act and US war crimes that precipitated it? Or the US war crimes since?
I think those guys will be just fine saying “I was just following the orders of the magnificent Cheeto”.
Nope! This is basic training we’re talking about. They teach only the details that accomplish the lesson. And the lesson was don’t follow illegal orders. If there’s more to the story that contradicts the lesson, you bet your ass it was omitted.
I guess my point was just because they tell you that you are going to get your ass kicked for committing war crimes does not mean they are not blatantly lying about it and that the US armed forcers would disobey illegal orders in a real, live situation.
That’s true - I guess we’ll see if and when it happens. But the training on that topic is pretty clear and heavily emphasized relative to other training. It’s also both a politically charged order and one that will elicit defensiveness even if it was made legal.
It’ll also cause a lot of infighting and heavily weaken our military, which would invite attacks from one (or more) of the nations we’ve pissed off with our shitty foreign policy… So there may well be troops taking to our streets shortly after that kind of order, but most likely not our troops.
What a fun alternative!