Code:
Content, Pictures and Download links visible to registered users only.
REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.
When I was a teenager, I mowed lawns around town for extra cash. This little old widow I worked for asked me to haul a bunch of stuff out her basement to the dump. In going through it, I stumbled on this little pamphlet that was given to new draftees at the beginning of World War II. Get in line, or something like that. Fall In, maybe. It was kind of a guide of what to expect in the military, how to comport yourself when you're in uniform in public, travelling on a train, going to local folks houses to have dinner (it was a much different world then). Really interesting stuff from a history perspective. Anyhow, one of the things it said was that orders from superiors are to be followed blindly, without question. Even if you know what you're being ordered is wrong or illegal. That you will NEVER be held accountable for following an order. In fact, you'll be held accountable if you don't follow the order.
From the perspective of 1981 or whatever, knowing about Nuremberg, it was really interesting. The Nuremberg Trials found that following orders was not an excuse. Hell, just within the last few months we sent a Nazi Concentration Camp guard back to Europe to face War Crimes prosecution. I'm not saying that's wrong or anything. I just find it ironic that as late as World War II we were drumming into new recruits heads that blind obedience was the only way to go. But that wasn't even considered as a defense at Nuremberg.
The winners always write the history, no?
Red