Good posts from both Amos and Captain Ginger. The only things missing from both were respectively the post-script - Thank Christ that I am not the one that has to make the decision when all your most experienced and trusted advisors are telling you that a threat exists and it requires urgent attention - It's the responsibility of leadership. The days of, "let's wait and see", have long since gone, if they ever really existed at all.

"We were also told that we could and should challenge any order we believed to be illegal."

Have you ever done it? Have you ever disobeyed, or refused to carry out, an order that you considered to be illegal? I have Captain, not the best of career moves, but right just the same.