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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Napoleonic battle ethics; or, `When to Fink on an Errant Boss...'
Message-ID: <657@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 21:05:18 EST
Article-I.D.: kontron.657
Posted: Wed Mar 26 21:05:18 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 04:45:59 EST
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Organization: Kontron Electronics, Mt. View, CA
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> > Everybody that goes through military basic training is taught that if
> > you are given an order by a superior that you think is illegal or 
> > otherwise "questionable",  you OBEY the order and complain later.
> 
> Quite true.  What they don't tell you, however, is that this can get you
> hanged for war crimes if you take it too literally.  The training is based
> on the -- reasonable, sensible -- view that the superior probably knows
> the situation better than you do, and delay can be disastrous.  There
> remains, however, a class of orders for which obedience is a violation of
> both national and international law.  (Note that treaties, e.g. the Geneva
> Convention, which are ratified by the Senate have the force of law in the
> United States.)
> -- 
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
> 				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry

And if your country isn't a party to a treaty that prohibits the war
crimes in question, that's no problem, right?  I really wish we could 
all get off this obsession with "legality" and start to worry about 
whether the actions are *moral* or not.