"...it would be the obligation of the American military to refuse the order. Just as lowly privates have a duty to refuse to massacre civilians despite orders to do so, the military is obliged to prevent needless pointless civilian death."

This is funny, in the military your trained to obey orders not question them. Sure, you might get lucky and have somebody who's conscientious and brave enough to buck the system but I wouldn't want to stake lives on it. There's nothing written about "prevent needless pointless civilian death." in the UCMJ(Uniformed Code of Military Justice). Just ask the Iraqi and Aghan civilians how scrupulously their lives were cared for by the US military.