For future reference, the two letter code for Canada is CA 🇨🇦. China is CN 🇨🇳
They are legally obliged to refuse to carry out illegal orders. “Just following orders” is no defence against war crime charges.
Quick question, what if refusing an order would get you killed?
Your job in the military is to risk your life to save the lives of others. Refusing to follow illegal orders is part of that. If you think your superior will kill you and then commit war crimes literally over your dead body, arrest them so they can be tried in military court or die trying. I know, we’re human and this is easier said than done, but it is what should be done.
This is why they fired the JAG lawyers at the Pentagon: there won’t be any legal expert opinions in the military to tell the soldiers the order is illegal.
You can refuse to disobey an illegal order. The military has a fairly clear list of what constitutes “illegal,” like executing unarmed non-combatants. The UCMJ makes allowances for this; it protects you from being court martialed for refusing to obey an order. However, the soldier doesn’t get to decide whether the order of illegal; it can’t just be something they disagree with, like invading Canada.
I do believe that, if such circumstances came about, a soldier could probably get away with a fairly broad interpretation of “illegal orders.” However, this is mostly theoretical.
First, if you thought peer pressure on high school was bad, it’s nothing compared to the Army.
Second, it doesn’t stop there from being immediate consequences, some of which might very well result in you being dead, many of which would just make your life hell. There are an almost unlimited number of legal orders you could be given that would make your life hell.
Third, it’s really predicated on the illegal order being given fairly low down the chain. If the commander of the US forces sends down orders to kill all the orphans in a town, the USMC isn’t going to help.
Fourth, the person giving you the order could threaten to kill you, right there, unless you obey. Sure, they might get in trouble later, but that doesn’t really help you now, does it? And maybe they won’t get in trouble. Maybe they say they gave you some other legal order you disobeyed, and no-one is willing to gainsay them.
But really, your question is whether there’s any protection if you disagree with an order, and the answer is “no.” There’s a narrow set of defined “illegal orders” which you can, theoretically, disobey.
In peacetime, you can decide to become a conscientious objector, and look forward to spending some time in prison. Once you join, you have almost no option for rejecting a legal order, without facing some sort of punishment.
Not active duty or a vet, but have had a lot of family in the forces;
Their duty is to uphold the constitution and protect the nation ostensibly, so they’d be obligated to refuse an illegal order. Realistically you won’t see that play out amongst the rank and file in part due to the culture of ‘discipline’ in the US military, and also the reality of court martial/dishonourable discharge. If something like this did occur it would likely be the five and/or four star generals that make the call. Now you have two powerful factions at odds with potentially catastrophic results.
Either way there’s gonna be court martials.
Officers swear to uphold the constitution. Enlisted swear to follow orders
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