Twoston
Welcome back. I share your summary, which is why I think that the decision of the GCM is predictable. This is a shame, as the specific question of whether a war of aggression is per se an illegal war, meaning that the individual's duty - not, pls note a right, but an obligation - to refuse illegal orders will not be tested. Which also means that if we are ordered to commit aggression again, we will not know the state of the law, and what we're supposed to do; I'd certainly welcome some clarity on this.
I stress that I'm not condemning those who fought in TELIC as "war criminals" for being involved in an illegal war, as the Government's unpublished legal advice to commanders was that it was legal. Those at the tactical and operational level were unlikely to have known how dubious the advice was, or how tendentious the use of intelligence was shown to be by Lord Hutton. Had I been involved in TELIC - which I was not - and I had been told that the A-G had determined it was legal, I would have followed my orders to the letter. (As this guy has done twice in Iraq, and once in Afghanistan.)
nutcracker43
You and I agree that whether we voted for Blair or not is completely irrelevant. (As it happens, I did not.) But surely the issue is the legality of the orders? For you to say:
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To all the people here who have hinted that the war was illegal, and yet continue to serve, are you yourselves not guilty of supporting an illegal war and therefore culpable. To them I should like to say: put up or shut up.
This talk of putting him up against a stake is nonsense and we all know it, however he does not have my support and I do not have any sympathy for his views, or those of others who support him.
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I support the right of the guy to stand up and question whether his orders were legal - as above, you know we should all check all our orders are legal before carrying them out. He has declined to follow orders which he believed to be illegal (pls note, I think that he's made a mistake, based on UNSCR 1546).
I support his obligation to check the legality of his orders, and has this occurred before the end of the war (arguably the adoption of UNSCR 1546 on 08 Jun 04) then
knowing what we know now , I think that he would be right.
And if I'm faced with the situation where I am being asked to carry out what I genuinely believe to be illegal - not merely immoral, but illegal - orders, I hope that I have the moral courage to do the same thing. Does this mean that in your world I should resign from the forces?
If anyone's having difficulty with the previous UN link, this one works for all of the 2004 resolutions:
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions04.html
S41
[edited for spolling...]