“Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die,” wrote poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1854. While the line implies that military men must do their duty and obey superiors regardless of cost, we know there are such things as illegal orders. There are also irrational, suicidal orders, such as the event inspiring Tennyson’s line: the disastrous charge of a Light Brigade during the Crimean War’s Battle of Balaclava. Yet while that tragedy resulted from innocent blunders, many wouldn’t say the same about another irrational order: the Biden administration’s directive that all American servicemen be “vaccinated” against SARS-CoV-2 despite soldiers being at greater risk of dying of suicide than COVID-19.
And now the administration wants the Pentagon to be able to court-martial any serviceman who resists.
The Daily Mail summarizes the story:
- The House is set to vote on the NDAA, the Pentagon’s annual defense budget, this week
- The Pentagon last month mandated that all 1.4 million service members get vaccinated
- An amendment passed during committee markup prohibits giving service members who refuse a vaccine anything but an honorable discharge
- White House said that ‘commanders must have the ability to give orders and take appropriate disciplinary measures,’ including enforcing the vaccine mandate
- The White House also took issue with section of the bill that exempts those who have had a previous Covid-19 infection from the vaccine mandate
“Since the Pentagon’s announcing of the mandate, different branches have imposed different deadlines for vaccinations,” the Mail also informs. “Active duty members of the Army will have to be vaccinated by Dec. 15, while active-duty members of the Air Force will have to get their shot by Nov. 2. Active duty marines and Navy sailors have to get their jab by Nov. 28, while reservists have until Dec. 28.”
“Reserve Air Force personnel have to get their shot by Dec. 2 while reserve members of the Army have until next June,” the paper continues.
Republicans generally oppose the bill, of course, with the GOP’s more patriotic and Truth-oriented Freedom Caucus ardently against it. In fact, the group “released a statement urging GOP members to vote against the NDAA to hold the Biden administration ‘accountable’ for the frenzied Afghanistan withdrawal, to fight against ‘turning our military into a progressive social experiment,’ and to protest an amendment that adds women to the draft,” the Mail further relates.
As for military members’ opposition to administration policy, obviously, discipline and obedience within the ranks are imperatives, and top brass must be able to lay down the law. It’s also true that deciding to disobey orders is always a serious matter, as a serviceman thus proceeding is stepping beyond his normal role and assessing policy.
Yet soldiers aren’t merely automatons, but are rational beings with intellect and free will. As such, they can and will make moral judgments about orders.
As to this, again, there’s every indication the Light Brigade fiasco was caused by superiors operating in good faith. Yet can the same be said of the genetic-therapy agent (GTA, a.k.a. “vaccine”) mandate?
A serviceman studying the issue may know that he and his fellows are at virtually no China virus risk. The CDC essentially related this fact back in October, providing data recently confirmed by Stanford University epidemiologist Dr. John Ioannidis. In fact, the 0 to 19 age group, into which some military members fall, has a China virus survival rate of 99.997 percent. The 20 to 49 age group, which includes virtually all other servicemen, has a 99.98-percent survivability rate.
Note that more than 600,000 of our 1.4 million active duty military personnel are 25 or younger.
Also note that, if anything, their China virus survivability may be even greater than indicated above because servicemen are healthier than the general population.
An informed military member also may know that contrary to health authorities’ past claims, the GTAs efficacy and safety are highly questionable. In fact, stories of GTA-coincident complications and even deaths are now legion, and FDA advisory panel member Steve Kirsch recently stated that the GTAs “kill more people than they save.”
Given this, many servicemen may ask, “Did I sign up to be a guinea pig?”
Influencing this judgment are the pigs “more equal than others.” Morale won’t be high and a disobedient spirit low unless servicemen can respect their superiors. Yet in recent years they’ve been spat upon by their leadership, civilian and military. They were forced to stand down for 60 days to ferret out alleged “extremism” and were unfairly maligned as having “white supremacists” in their ranks, have had Critical Race Theory and other “woke” ideology foisted upon them, and have witnessed the military become a testing ground for sexual devolutionary social engineering.
Moreover, they’ve seen how the top brass commit transgressions with impunity. Most notable is General Mark Milley’s phone call with a Chinese general, in which he arguably descended into treason by promising to warn Beijing if the United States planned to attack. There are no signs Manchurian Milley will be punished in any way.
Would you buy a used GTA mandate from these people? Servicemen just may conclude that if “rule”-breaking is good enough for wizened and woke generals way past their sell-by date, it’s good enough for them, too.
And what of the moral aspect of defying orders? The answer is in the question. “Morality,” properly understood, implies recognition of a measure above man. Worldly authority always ends where divine law begins.
Of course, this is often a difficult judgment call. So perhaps the answer is that military members have to follow their consciences in these matters — and upper echelon superiors must follow their consciences in deciding consequences.
If only we could believe that, with the GTA mandate, it is conscience with our “leaders” and not just politics masquerading as principle.
