>>519754992
I always found it to be a specious argument at best to say that "I was just following orders" is no defense.

How do judges conduct their courtrooms?
Is it not by issuing orders? Aren't judges also subject to orders? Suppose everyone in the courtroom decided to stop following them. It would undermine the entire process both in that courtroom and in all other courtrooms. The wheel of justice itself would seize.

So by the same token, are soldiers not supposed to follow orders? Are they optional? What do you imagine happens to a soldier who refuses an order of any kind?

You put the soldier in an impossible situation where he faces death for refusing conscription, death for refusing orders, and death for following them. In what world can any of that be justice?