Thankfully MLK’s freedom march turned out to be peaceful, so we were ordered to stand down and get back to our usual job of burying dead soldiers with honor. But if we had been sent into the demonstration and ordered to fire on the demonstrators or attack them with bayonets, we would have done so. Soldiers follow orders, period. They do not pick and choose which ones to follow as you state in your #30 or which ones are right or wrong as in your #129.
Shove It, I do apologize for my long delay in responding as I was busy with travel for a training rotation in the lovely Mojave..... Anyhow, Soldiers are expected, and instructed to disobey illegal orders: specifically ones which violate the laws of the United States and the laws of land warfare. This has been a part of every pre-deployment briefing I have received through out my career. This is why it has been American Soldiers (not the press or some investigator) who have exposed the major incidents in which units and commanders have failed live up to the expected standards (Mai-Li, and Abu Gharib come to mind) and have prevented commanders and senior NCOs from stepping over the line at other times by simply saying “that is wrong.” Our Soldiers are very well disciplined, but they are not robots. Of the Soldiers I know of who returned fire on Gang-bangers doing drive-bys during the LA riots, most would have refused to fire on innocent and peaceful demonstrators. There will always be some who will follow illegal orders, but many more who will not.