Quote Originally Posted by 120mm View Post
That is a very limited and legalistic way to look at it. As a commander, at any level, I reserve the right to disobey any "order" I choose to, based on two criteria.
...
Second, as the commander on the ground, I have the power to disobey any order I don't agree with for tactical or technical reasons.
I suspect that 120mm is correct on this one. Granted, this was 12 years ago, but I recall reading an incident in Hackworth's autobiography in which he was tried for disobeying an order in combat. He writes about how flabbergasted he was at his lawyer for not saying a word throughout the proceeding until, finally, after lengthy arguments by the prosecution, his lawyer stood and simply quoted some regulation that says, in effect, "the commander on the ground gets the last call." And that was all it took. He was free as a bird. And that bird did not change.

Quote Originally Posted by jkm_101_fso View Post
I think an important question is:

Who will be held responsible if an interpreter or their family are harmed as a direct result of this policy?

My vote is MG Hammond.

What should his punishment be?
An accurate and well-informed bullet in his OER. And by "well-informed" I make the optimistic assumption that there is more to this decision than what is in the public record.