The Nuremberg Defense Does Not Work
William Calley is dead, and Senators Kelly and Slotkin, and the rest of the Patriot 6 are the grown-ups in the room. PERIOD.
Here is the short course:
Saying, “He (they) told me to do it,” does not absolve one of responsibility, particularly in the military. It did not work at the Nuremberg Trials, it did not work for William Calley, and it will not work for the members of the Southern Command blasting outboards out of the water.
The Patriot 6 pointed that out, as they should—as members of Congress and as military and intelligence professionals. For that, the Draft Dodger in Chief called them seditious and sicced Heggy and his Department of Warmongering on the one member, Senator Kelly, who retired from the military and is theoretically subject to recall and court-martial.
Here is what former US Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman has to say about that:
Remembering Calley
Calley was an OCS aberration. We were contemporaries: he graduated with OCS Class 51; I graduated with OCS Class 36, 15 weeks apart. The My Lai massacre occurred on March 16, 1968, when Calley led his platoon of Americal Division soldiers into the hamlet of My Lai and slaughtered over 500 civilians.
He claimed his company commander, Ernest Medina, ordered him to do so. Medina was subsequently acquitted. Calley was sentenced to life in Leavenworth, but because of appeals and legal maneuvering, he was released in 1975.
My take: he should have been shot.
He ordered the murders of and personally caused the deaths of a bunch of unarmed civilians. We—meaning US Soldiers—do not do that. We do not do that because that is what keeps us from being barbarians. I do not care what they do. We do not do that.
Calley was as dumb as a brick. I saw his kind in my OCS Class, most of whom washed out. But the Army was so pushed to fill officer slots created by the endless stream of coffins coming back from Southeast Asia, a few whackos slipped through. Calley was one. Moreover, the Americal Division had a reputation for being a sloppy outfit. Put the two together and disaster strikes.
Calley died last year at 80. He got a lot better than he gave.
Oaths
Enlisted folks take one oath, the Officer Corps takes another. Enlisted folks swear to, “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Here is the Officers’ oath: “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Big difference. Very intentional. Because the Officer Corps is considered the last line of defense against an authoritarian regime, there is nothing in their oath about obeying the orders of the President.
Sadly, this administration has gutted the senior JAG officers from all the branches of the military. And those military lawyers are the ones who should be explaining the legal ramifications of these oaths to leadership and troops.
Finally, realize we are in a multi-front war. The wild country of America, which is very dear to my heart, is being pillaged under our noses. Ryan Busse, a fellow Substacker, explains part of the problem:
Have a great Thanksgiving. Don’t fight at the table.
But tomorrow, fight the fight.
It is so disappointing to me that hunters could be unaware of "the existential threat MAGA would pose to wild places" when it is right there in Project 25. Surely hunters have time to read? What a great description by Busse of how "social media influencers," who figured out how to monetize hunters' love of wild places, have been bought by the big money influencers with big plans to monetize those wild places.