Nutcracker43 wrote:
If a situation such as the above should arise and you feel you cannot take part in a war because you believe it to be illegal, then yes I do feel you should resign your commission. Serving in the military is not 'a la carte', and if the menu is is not to your liking then I think you should leave. If you are given an order which you feel is illegal then, yes, you shold indeed question the illegal order, you have an obligation to. And if you are still at variance with the powers that be, then do the decent thing and leave.
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Interesting. I agree with virtually all of this, except your conclusion, because I think that you're missing one important point. Given that the only time you would question orders on the grounds of legality is when you seriously believe you are being asked to commit a crimnal act, the answer must be to kick the question back up the chain, rather than simply resigning. At the point at which you are told to "do it or resign", if I believed I was right, I would refuse to follow the order and get CM'd. I would not resign.
Why? Because in forcing the powers-that-be to CM me (something that would not be done lightly and would be noticed by the senior leadership), I would be protecting those under my command from following what I considered to be an illegal order, which is my responsibility as their leader. In resigning (presumably in favour of someone who would follow the order I believed to be illegal), I'd be putting my troops in a position where they could be coerced into implementing illegal orders.
S41