Land of Oz

Orders - Good and Bad

The military is between a rock and a hard spot in more than one way. Following orders is one of the tricky ones. Part, a big part after all, of the military is following orders. However these days, more and more questions about just what orders to follow are coming up. One thing that has changed is stop-loss. If you don't know what that is, it's a program that allows the military to keep people from getting out at their prearranged time. I've seen many comments where people said the GIs have agreed to be in, so they should just follow orders and suck it up.

But there's more and more GIs who are getting legally prosecuted for following orders under the caveat that they shouldn't blindly follow orders. The GI is going to have to get some training in legalese just so they can determine what orders they should really follow. Say they're ordered to call in fire on a map location. Do they immediately follow that order and take an enemy mortar team just packing up after an attack, or do they wonder that maybe those coordinates are actually those of a Seven-Eleven and their commander misread the coordinates. How far in questioning an enemy (if it's really an enemy) prisoner can you go before you've gone too far?

There's going to be GIs getting into firefights and having to pause just too long to think and they're going to get killed. I mean, I know you have to make sure of your target, but think about it. Once again, there's no uniforms for the bad guys here. There's no cowboys in white hats and Indians in feathers and breechclothes. There's no coal-scuttle helmets or quilted jackets to help tell the good guys from the bad guys. There's been car bombs with little kids in the back seat for camoflage and women wearing vest bombs walking into mess halls. Man, I'm glad I'm not in the military right now.

Labels: military