It will be assumed to be a legal order unless the defense can show Lakin had ample reason to think otherwise. As a rule of thumb, if the 4-star on down to the O-6 thinks it is a legal order, the LTC is expected to trust their judgment.
You cannot have a functioning military if everyone gets to pick and choose. And before someone asks about Nuremberg, Lakin wasn’t ordered to kill civilians in gas chambers...
I believe that's one of the points in the manual for courts martial, that an order is presumed to be legal. I think this is true even if there are problems with the order, but it is delivered according to a standard procedure.
That would apply to this order, since it probably went through the SecDef and the CJCS and the Army CIC.
That said, I hope (against hope) that Lakin prevails; and I do think that Obama should prove his status.
“It will be assumed to be a legal order unless the defense can show Lakin had ample reason to think otherwise. As a rule of thumb, if the 4-star on down to the O-6 thinks it is a legal order, the LTC is expected to trust their judgment.”
If he cannot question the legality of his orders then how were all those guards convicted at Nuremburg? The prosecution specifically held that they should have disobeyed their orders and thus risked joining the Jews in the ‘showers.’ Those guards were caught between a rock and a hard spot - damnned if the did and damned if they didn’t. LTC Lakin is in an arguably similar position.
I doubt we’ll decide his fate here... except through prayer.
SPs have a field day!
But he was ordered to go to a war zone in Afghanistan!!
Orders vs, orders, logic, hmmmm!!!