Paul Harvey had a segment called “The Rest of the Story.”  The Seditious Six of Congress failed to tell everything, so now let the record be set straight.

Yes, servicemen, you have a right and a responsibility to refuse to follow unlawful orders.  But be forewarned that when you refuse an order, you will be court-martialed, and at that time, you will have to prove that the order was absolutely unlawful — and not just unlawful or immoral from your perspective.  If you cannot do that, you will at the very least be sentenced to hard time at Leavenworth and may very well be executed.

Furthermore, if you refuse an order while in a combat situation, the officer in charge has the right, if not the duty and responsibility, to shoot then and there.  He has not the time or resources to handle a mutiny while under fire.

It must be remembered that the armed services are not a debating society.  They are there to fulfill the missions given to it by the civilian leadership.  It is easy to give counsel when you do not have to pay the price for following it, and it is an immoral lie when it fails to point out the possible repercussions from following such counsel — particularly when it is given on purely partisan lines and for political reasons.

In the end, our servicemen must stand alone before the judgment of God and explain why they did or did not follow a certain order.  May God bless them and give them the strength and wisdom needed.

Matt Simmons is a retired Air Force officer.

Image: Eugene Zemlyanskiy via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.