Jon Ronson, in his book The Men Who Stare At Goats, mentioned a little about how the soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib fiasco explained their behavior by saying they were just following orders.  Technically this is a true statement, which makes it seem like a legitimate excuse.  But Ronson points to a movie about the life of Martin Luther and his struggle against the hypocrisy of the Catholic church:  "The moral of Martin Luther is that the individual cannot hide behind the institution."  This reminded me of a haunting scene from an X-Men movie where Magneto dismisses Charles Xavier's explanation for humanity's violence toward mutants as "they're just following orders" with a flashback to his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp where the soldiers used the same excuse.  Ouch.  Personal responsibility trumps following orders. #psychology