USA - MILITARY MEN FACE MORAL DILEMMA ON SYRIAN STRIKE: FOLLOW THEIR CONSCIENCES OR "JUST FOLLOW ORDERS"

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MILITARY MEN FACE MORAL DILEMMA ON SYRIAN STRIKE: FOLLOW THEIR CONSCIENCES OR "JUST FOLLOW ORDERS"

With the White House pushing for a U.S. military strike on Syria, military servicemen have been posting their objections (or lack of objections) to following orders to attack a country that has done nothing to the United States and poses no threat to U.S. national security. Many enlisted men are experiencing the struggle between following their consciences and blindly following orders.

Apparently “refuse” is not in Cookson’s lexicon, leaving many to wonder how far a person with his mentality would be willing to go in the pursuit of unconstitutional, immoral, and illegal orders passed down by their superiors. One internet meme created in response to Cookson’s public statement said, “When they come for our guns, this is who they’ll send.”

How far will each of us — soldier or citizen — go in compliance with unjust orders and laws? Its a very valid question that should receive an exhaustive amount of thought and discussion from all of us. Where is our line in the sand on orders/laws that we will refuse to obey? Does our line in the sand even exist? Many people have no limits to the orders they will carry out, as has been proven over and over by studying human psychology, and by uncovering all the human atrocities that have been committed under the cloak of “just following orders.” Only a forgotten minority defect.

The vast majority of people will always obey authority, even going as far as to haul innocent civilians into concentration camps just to protect their own paychecks. If soldiers will round up American citizens, then attacking yet another foreign country will surely be no great moral challenge for the vast majority. Please, prove me wrong.

The time is now to draw our lines in the sand; moral lines, independent of what the du jour orders and laws say. When compromising moral circumstances inevitably present themselves, will you stand with Cookson doing whatever your masters tell you? Or will you obey your conscience and refuse — perhaps at great personal risk — the immoral mandates presented before you by the authorities?

READ MORE: http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/military-men-face-moral-dilemma-on-syrian-strike-follow-their-consciences-or-just-follow-orders/