[Avodah] Wartime orders

[Moshe Y. Gluck]

R' Saul Weinreb:
I don't think being court martialled is a pikuash nefesh, as I stated
before, people don't actually get executed for such things in today's
military.  



I was the one who originally suggested that being court-martialed might be a
Safek Sakanas Nefashos, and I'm not convinced by your statement, "people
don't actually get executed for such things in today's military," that it
isn't. AIUI, since one could be court-martialed, and since the court has the
power to give the death sentence, the fact that it generally (99.99%) of the
time doesn't do so doesn't change the Safek Pikuach Nefesh aspect of the
procedure. It isn't hard to come up with a scenario - especially in an
ad-hoc wartime situation - where one can end up in front of a hostile court
(and where anti-Semitism may come into play) resulting in a summary death
penalty judgment. Although there hasn't been a U.S. court-martial resulting
in an execution since 1961, there are nine inmates in the military death row
(source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=180&scid=32#facts.)
(To be fair, I believe all those cases include a murder component. However,
I believe one can receive the death penalty for treason, and I could see how
disobeying orders can be mistaken, in some contexts, for that.) 

KT,
MYG