I've long believed that what went on in Hitler's Germany (and elsewhere) was no fluke. I've believed that when given orders to "go do XYZ", everyone is going to salute and go do that which they are told to do. Nobody is going to ask "is this wrong". If a future president declares martial law and sends the Army into the streets against American citizens, don't expect them not to do it.
CDR Salamander explains why.
In some militaries, the penalty for not following orders will be a Euro-pellet to the back of the head. Not too many will defy orders in that case.
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
If you're one of the Covidiots who believe that COVID-19 is "just the flu",
that the 2020 election was stolen, or
especially if you supported the 1/6/21 insurrection,
leave now.
Slava Ukraini!
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
5 comments:
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I read that one yesterday & thought back to what I was told in NCO academy decades ago: "If you're given an illegal, without doubt illegal, order, follow it. Make a complaint later through the chain of command."
ReplyDeleteAnd trust there will be another John Yoo to explain that anything is legal.
Nobody will directly disobey an order. The order will be issued, but because it's Trump, he'll leave out all the details. At every step down the chain of command, the person who has to type up the actual details will soften it and figure out the minimum amount of work that will comply with the letter of the document he received. By the time it gets to an actual boot, "stomping on a human face forever" will be reduced to something like "kick them in the ankle so it hurts a whole lot".
ReplyDeleteThat's what happened in Nazi Germany. Very few of the victims of the Shoah were in Germany. The crimes against humanity generally took place in countries where the bureaucracy had been destroyed. (Stealing freely from Timothy Snyder, here.)
Paul, and let's not forget the time-honored "accidental discharge of a weapon which hit the 2LT in the back of the neck".
ReplyDeleteRead the comments at CDR Salamander's post. Take off the kid gloves, there are no rules, women and children are enemy assets, etc. Not only will they obey illegal orders, they will do so with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts.
ReplyDeleteLeo, I read that comment thread. It was very saddening. If the Trump Administration set up concentration camps and gas chambers, they would not lack for people to staff them.
ReplyDelete