the ethics of military service

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Advocate
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the ethics of military service

Post by Advocate »

What if you had no right to follow the orders you're following because the people who issued the orders were trying to accomplish illegitimate goals handed down by illegitimate leaders who were selected by illegitimate criteria created long ago by others who gained their power in ways besides deserving it?
Age
Posts: 20194
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2018 8:17 am

Re: the ethics of military service

Post by Age »

WHERE do 'you' think or BELIEVE 'rights', themselves, come from ACTUALLY?

'you', as a human being, ALWAYS have 'rights'.

If you think, or BELIEVE, that those 'rights' come from human being written laws, then, ONCE AGAIN, 'you' are SADLY, and COMPLETELY, MISTAKEN
Skip
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Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2011 1:34 pm

Re: the ethics of military service

Post by Skip »

Advocate wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 9:06 pm What if you had no right to follow the orders
Following orders is an abrogation or yielding of whatever rights one might have previously had.
the people who issued the orders were trying to accomplish illegitimate goals
How is a foot-soldier supposed to know that? Nobody tells them what the "goals" are, let alone by what law those goals are lawful.
handed down by illegitimate leaders
The foot-soldier doesn't know that, either.
who were selected by illegitimate criteria created long ago by others who gained their power in ways besides deserving it?
or that
And it's not the soldier's business to understand or judge the provenance of his nation's administration. Soldiers enlisted or were conscripted, trained and sent out to obey the commands of their immediate superior in rank. That's all.
Now, if a private has a moral problem with some task he's ordered to carry out, he may refuse - knowing the penalty. If an officer has a moral problem with some order, he may question it or refuse to pass it down to the ranks - knowing the penalty. If a staff general has a moral problem with an objective set for the forces under his command, he may question it, refuse it, or suspend military operations altogether or stage a coup.
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