A Duty to Disobey All Unlawful Orders

[Reese]

At 02:58 PM 3/18/2003 -0600, John Thornton wrote:
>
>>Point of order:
>>
>>Those "not warrior types" receive the exact same training as the
>>active duty types, with one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the summer
>>for refresher - so if the reservists are not qualified, the active
>>duty troops are not qualified much better.
>>
>I can't speak for all branches of the military but in the Navy training is 
>hardly uniform. I did basic at Great Lakes and then my "A" school there as 
>well. Hospital Corpsman. Nobody learned anything about killing. I knew 
>firefighters, radiomen, engineers, etc. and most of them had never even 
>held a firearm let alone trained to kill anyone. Many chose the rating they 
>did so that they would not have to kill. They were getting job training for 
>the civilian world and just happened to be getting it from Uncle Sam. Many 
>wanted to do the patriotic thing, help their country, community, whatever 
>without harming others. You can agree or disagree with their reasoning but 
>they are not trained killers. After "A" school about 25% (at the time I was 
>there) of Hospital Corpsmen get sent to basic training with the Marine 
>Corps (Camp Lejeune sucks). You go through a completely different type of 
>training than you received initially. Here you will learn to kill even 
>though you are technically considered non-combatants.

My naval experiences are on par with yours, now contrast that with Alan's
"gung ho shit" comment.


>>Similarly, if the "GIs" you speak of made the decisions, eventually
>>there would be no military uniforms, no grooming standards, no discipline
>>of any sort to distinguish military from any other group of civilians,
>>and then where would we be?


>Not that this seems terribly relevant but most officers and many enlistees 
>like their uniforms. They feel it is important for their identity. They 
>generally seek the discipline that the military provides so they would not 
>likely discard that either. I don't know why you would think other

Incrementalism.  Take the recently promulgated policy on tattoos, brandings
and piercings, for example:

http://www.bupers.navy.mil/navadmin/nav03/nav03021.txt

Care to hazard a guess on why was it necessary to provide amplification 
and clarification?

Reese