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“Are you Really going to do That? Why is it wrong? Just asking a question.”

every Solder, Sailor, Marine, and Airman knows they do not have to follow an illegal order. The statement that you were just reminding the troops of their legal obligations is just so much hot air. Everyone with a brain knows what you were doing and the intended message of your double speak. By attempting to sow doubt into the minds of those who are defending your right to say such nonsense is despicable. Your lawyers of course were smart enough to have you to include the term “Illegal” order, but the intent is not lost.

The rest of their backers then come out with reminders of the Nurenberg trials and the establishment of the fact that just following orders is not a legal defense. This again warps intent. The bulk of the defendants at Nurenberg were senior political and military leaders. Should POTUS or any senior military leader give an American service member an illegal order then they should face the consequence.

 Your video, however, seemed aimed at private Joe Snuffy who would never be able to understand the nuances of an order being legal or not. If you are on duty guarding a federal building in some city when you see a large crowd screaming and running at you waving foreign flags, what do you do? You have been told that the use of deadly force in authorized and your officers order you to open fire as this crowd is a group of terrorist intent on killing the people inside, yet someone says don’t shoot as this is a peaceful group of innocent protestors, now what.   

On the one hand you are obligated to obey the orders of the officers in charge and yet some politicians reminded you that you are obligated to disobey an illegal order. Do you all get together and discuss it? This is the problem with the kind of dangerous rhetoric that comes from that video. Your video has all the earmarks of an old Soviet stile disinformation campaign. The first and foremost aspect is that it contains a kernel of truth, that you do not have to obey an illegal order.

This video was not directed at the troops as a reminder but rather to the public to say the President and the rest of the senior chain of command are breaking the law because they do not agree with his politics. If you want to say that you disagree with the policies and direction of the President, fine. Just do not hide behind a false moral stand.