The BBC has done a pitiful job of covering the court martial of RAF doctor Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith who defied orders to return to Iraq citing the illegality of the war.
The prosecution said “it was not Dr Kendall-Smith’s responsibility to question the legality of orders given to him”.
Well, actually, it is. In fact, by law, not only is he to question the legality, he is to question to morality of orders too. As was established before the Nuremberg trials, a soldier cannot use “just following orders” as a defense against criminal prosecution. The London Nuremberg Charter explicitly stated that. The US Uniform Code of Military Justice was ammended after World War II to reflect it. This was all part of the reformation of International law.
I didn’t happen to notice any of this relevant information in the BBC article. I guess they had diverted journalistic resources to covering the all-important Da Vinci Code trial.