{"id":56356,"date":"2025-11-26T06:45:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=56356"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:12:12","slug":"you-must-refuse-illegal-orders-if-this-be-treason-make-the-most-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/26\/you-must-refuse-illegal-orders-if-this-be-treason-make-the-most-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"You Must Refuse Illegal Orders. If This Be Treason, Make the Most of It."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Democrats to Troops: Don\u2019t Follow Unlawful Orders #shorts\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JGhXnOo3yuw?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can refuse illegal orders \u2026 you MUST refuse illegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the message from a recent video featuring six Democratic members of Congress, all former members of the US armed forces and\/or intelligence services, and directed at current members of those organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Seems non-controversial, but someone else would like a word. Er, several words:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? \u2026 SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As you\u2019ve probably guessed, that someone else is US president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019s not just talking. He\u2019s had US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth threaten to recall one of the politicians in question, US Senator Mark Kelly, to active duty in the Navy for a potential court-martial. He\u2019s having the Federal Bureau of Investigation request \u201cinterviews\u201d with with all six politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, really.<\/p>\n<p>But, like I said, the whole thing seems uncontroversial. This is, to use a turn of phrase Trump seems to like, a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been 40 years since I spent the summer in San Diego becoming a US Marine. I\u2019m sure things have changed since then, but I doubt they\u2019ve changed so much that anyone graduates any armed forces boot camp without receiving instruction in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.<\/p>\n<p>A summary, from memory, on the section (Article 92) concerning orders:<\/p>\n<p>You must obey lawful orders.<\/p>\n<p>You must not obey unlawful orders.<\/p>\n<p>As I recall it, the case my platoon\u2019s instructor used as an example was Lt. William Calley\u2019s conduct in Vietnam during an event later known as the \u201cMy Lai Massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what the US Court of Military Appeals had to say about Calley\u2019s defense that he was \u201cjust following orders\u201d:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn order requiring the performance of a military duty may be inferred to be legal. An act performed manifestly beyond the scope of authority, or pursuant to an order that a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know to be illegal, or in a wanton manner in the discharge of a lawful duty, is not excusable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Calley served three years (of a life sentence) for the murders at My Lai.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because you must refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s \u201ctreason\u201d or \u201csedition\u201d to state that fact, then every instructor in every basic training class on military law is a traitor who\u2019s been teaching treason and preaching sedition to every recruit since 1950, when the UCMJ was adopted \u2026 and probably long before that.<\/p>\n<p>Would these particular politicians have made this particular video if it was a Democrat issuing illegal orders from the White House?<\/p>\n<p>Probably not, but they\u2019re right anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Note to military and intelligence personnel:<\/p>\n<p>You must refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n<p>If this be treason, make the most of it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thomas L. Knapp (X:<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thomaslknapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0@thomaslknapp<\/a> |Bluesky:<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/knappster.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> @knappster.bsky.social\u00a0<\/a>| Mastodon:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/social.freetalklive.com\/@knappster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@knappster<\/a>) is director and senior news analyst at the <a href=\"https:\/\/thegarrisoncenter.org\">William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism<\/a>. He lives and works in north central Florida.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou can refuse illegal orders \u2026 you MUST refuse illegal orders.\u201d That\u2019s the message from a recent video featuring six Democratic members of Congress, all former members of the US armed forces and\/or intelligence services, and directed at current members of those organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[816],"class_list":["post-56356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56356"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56367,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56356\/revisions\/56367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56356"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=56356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}