The punishment will happen either way. If the bad guys win the punishment won’t stop. This whole thing of not obeying illegal orders relies on enough people to not obey that it can’t be ignored, and even then they can apparently 1984 it away anyway.

It’s incredibly childish.

You get orders to do a thing (“Blow up that orphanage soldier!”)

You ask for clarification (“That looks like a civilian target, do you mean the outpost next to it?”)

Get claification that confirms unlawful order (“No the orphanage full of kids, level it before the enemy uses it for cover.”)

You are OBLIGATED BY YOUR DUTY TO INTERNATIONAL LAWS OF WAR to reject the order (“Negative, I cannot do that”) and to report others who obey unlawful orders, outside of your chain of command if neccesary (“Fine, I’ll get someone else to destroy it. You’re finished.”)

Then you’ll likely be pulled from your unit, and face court matial where the situation will be investigated like most other court cases. (“There was an outpost nearby but the orphanage was not a legal target”)

That’s how it’s supposed to work, but like most things we don’t live in a perfect world and things get messy when careers, commands, politics and reputations are on the line. (“The officer made a big mistake in the heat of combat, but we can’t have this make world news. Maybe we can just move him to a different unit and classify this whole ordeal…”)

girightshotline.org

This is the number to call if you are given an unlawful and or immoral order.

The way military members view their role in war is a constantly evolving story. Often during their military careers, people start to question or doubt the missions they once signed on to carry out. Some feel asked to carry out orders they never imagined. As citizens themselves, some military members want to use their free speech rights to speak out against injustices they see. Some even find themselves in situations where their conscience won’t allow them to carry out orders they believe to be immoral. And in the rigid military discipline system, people are often curious about their rights in these situations and nervous about possible consequences for acting on their inclinations. There is a long, powerful legacy of military personnel taking courageous action to ensure public visibility and/or accountability for unlawful, unethical and unjust situations carried out by the US military.

Im not sure because I have never been in the military. This is because I understood that signing up for it would mean killing folks if told to do so. I honestly feel that many people just don’t really let that sink in before they sign up. Its heavy. Whatever the process is im sure it starts with courage. I think about bradley manning and edward snowden level of courage.

I read up on this recently, and my understanding is that the solider is supposed to presume the order is legal and carry it out(otherwise, a CO should not have given it in the first place). However, they can refuse, but will face consequences in that they better have a buttload of proof.

In effect, they will get in trouble for disobeying an order, but if it is proven that the order was demonstrably illegal to begin with, then they will probably be in the clear.

If you have about 20 minutes – youtube.com/watch?v=TwPLqGkYnBA

Its not as cut and dry as everyone here is making it out to be. This is an organization of people, rules are bent and broken CONSTANTLY.

Each branch has a form of peer-mentoring. In some form or another you’re graded on your ability to do your job and those grades get looked at for your promotion.

It starts off as a negative counseling. Sometimes written, most times just verbal. These are the “oh man I forgot to do this duty at the end of the day” type offenses. More than likely someone is just gonna tell you to pull you’re head out of your ass and fix it.

Get enough of these and eventually you will get whats called a “non-judical punishment”. These are punishments handed out by commanding officers. See “UCMJ Article 15”. These are offenses under the rest of the UCMJ. Some things like adultery are still chargeable offenses. If they cant find something to charge you with “UCMJ Article 134” is a general offense. Basically “hey we didnt like what you did, its not illegal, but were gonna charge you anyway”

Think of NJPs as a misdemeanor, smaller but still serious infraction. When you leave the military, nobody will know that you got charged with something. But these do come with punishments. You basically get “grounded” cant leave your barracks room / get put on restriction. Also loss of pay.

Decide to commit a serous crime defined in the UCMJ? Well thats what a court-martial is. That is equivalent to a felony and will show up on any criminal background check. These often include jail time and reductions in rank.

Its all incredibly suggestive and depends on all the parties involved.

It depends on the level of organization you work for. At a certain point you just don’t get back home, just vanish. At low level you just get reassigned to a worse position.

What happens is the person that disobeys orders spends years dealing with all types of non judicial and judicial punishment, then they probably get vilified by various right wing pundits and having their lives dismantled and all types of fucked up, decades later some court will exonerate them and by that time, no one will remember the dudes name and or will only remember that they are a bad guy.

It isnt a culture of the people above me know better. It is a legal system taht dictates that.

Court martial, Dishonorable discharge, no veterans benefits, and your résumé will be marred & blacklisted and look very bad to any future employment prospects in the civilian sector, similar to how ex-felons have difficulty finding jobs when they get out of prison.