Contributor: Are our military leaders to blame for disobeying illegal orders?

If killing men on ships at sea were really legal, we wouldn’t need a secret memo to say so.

According to the Washington Post, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel quietly assured The Defense Department said last week that US troops could not be prosecuted for more than 20 “ship attacks” that killed at least 80 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Such memorandum does not constitute halal language. It speaks the language of prevention of crime management and accountability. When a government has to promise immunity to its fighters, it acknowledges that it has crossed a line.

It is not a separate add-on. This is a continuation of the moral decay that has been revealed by the memo during America’s decades of war. The George W. Bush Administration wrote The first part of this authorization was lost when its lawyers defined torture as an “advanced question”. The Obama administration take back Those ideas – again using the same machine justification Rationalizing drone strikes, including that one In 2011, an American citizen was killed And another killed his 16-year-old son. The party in charge may change, but the ugly logic persists: if you can’t fix it, legalize it.

President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth have brought this logic to the open sea. Missiles fired from American planes are destroyed small Open speedboats suspected of carrying drugs. There are no declarations of war, no accusations, no trials. The Pentagon insists that the killings are “lawful orders, approved by law enforcement.”Chain up and down“That line should freeze anyone who wears a uniform. No law of armed conflict allows execution without combat. No one on these ships can justifiably be labeled combatants. There is no moral universe in which steaming men in the middle of the sea is an act of justice.

Our allies see what we refuse to see. According to the UK report Stop sharing intelligence For these missions, do not want to engage in actions that violate international law.

Inside the military, there is much more going on than any policy debate that surrounds it. Officers trained through their careers on principles such as proportionality and restraint transferred their consciences to the legal process. The logic is that if lawyers sign, ethics no longer need to enter the equation. “Legal” justification serves as a kind of moral anesthesia. But every order made under this logic destroys the institution that gives it—and the soul of those who obey it.

The phrase “Halal provisions” has become the official slogan of the army. We repeat this to free ourselves from the thought, that justice should be handed over to the paperwork. It doesn’t matter how many knots a lawyer has to go through to get there, legality is not legitimacy. A confidential memorandum cannot purge the conscience of an institution once it is defined by its limitations. The rule of law that once distinguished American power from impunity has been deliberately dismantled, one idea at a time.

Most officers can tell the difference between orders that uphold our values ​​and those that contradict them. They are not ignorant – they are simply allowed to see. Built-in legitimacy provides coverage, and the system rewards those who buy it. For years the military has promoted obedience and punished love, creating a culture that confuses loyalty with conformity and obedience with virtue. Now the nation expects that same culture to stand up to a president who is willing to issue illegal orders. It won’t be. This is the risk we have created. A system built for obedience cannot inspire courage in command. This should scare everyone.

For those who took comfort in the persistence of the generals During Trump’s September speech at QuanticoBelieving that it reflects discipline or restraint, know this: this silence means something else entirely. This means they will go quietly. They’ll hold their noses and carry out illegal orders — orders to kill, no less — rather than challenge the system they challenge. This surrender is hidden as a commandment.

It’s not unfair to expect more from those who lead a country’s military – it’s work. Military leaders swore to defend the constitution, not to obey a man. We don’t talk about it much, but this oath is a life and death promise. It has the patience and courage to say no when it matters most.

What makes a nation worth serving is not its strength but its willingness to resist it. The rule of law has confirmed our power and honored our service. We lose it not through defeat, but through surrender—one silent act of obedience one moment at a time. No memory can fix it.

John Duffy is a retired Navy Captain. His active duty included command at sea and national security roles. He writes about leadership and democracy.