Clearly obedience to orders is an essential characteristic, without which the military would lack the reliability to achieve its missions. However, soldiers must not follow unlawful or immoral orders, and are in fact obligated to disobey such orders. In the military academies officer candidates are taught that blind obedience is an undesirable characteristic. They are taught broad thinking concepts such as, "obedience includes criticism", "verbal expression of disagreement is part of this chain of reasoning," and that criticism is not a "statement of disobedience or of disloyalty." As it turns out, Howard Zinn's reiteration of New York City Mayor, John Lindsay's words from a speech at Columbia University that, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism," appears to be literally true even in the ranks of the military.
