I wish we'd stop tossing the ball to sailors and lower level officers.

[stopdiggin]

6. It's always been a fairly specious argument

And Mark Kelly, and others are fully aware of that. (as their experience leads them to have every reason to be) But you make a good point in highlighting the hypocrisy involved. Let's take a poll of all those that have served in uniform: "During your service, how many times did you refuse an 'illegal order'?" "During same period, how many times did you observe 'others' refusing illegal orders?" Which just might serve well to highlight - why, oh why, are we laying this off on the swabbies and grunts serving on the line?

The coup de grace of surviving sailors being the possible rare exception where this might in fact have been in play ...
(and, as we can see, - nobody jumped up to say, "No, sir!" "I will not ... " )