command decision 

Military term;
the act of arriving at a decision and acting upon it without the direction of, or orders from a higher authority. i.e. an independant course of action without the sanction of a superior.

"Corporal, who told you to toss that live round over the side? Don't you realize that this is a waste of government property and you could be charged under a violation of section 118 of the articles of war?"

"Yes sir, I felt I had three options: knowing that a round which falls on the deck is considered to be a hot round and therefore unsafe; I could have left it to roll around the deck and detonate in its own time, or I could retreive it and place it in the hopper to be fired off, thus risking the lives of the three guncrew if it detonated while still in the hopper; or I could elect to throw it overboard."

"I determined that the risk wasn't warranted and so I tossed it."

"It was a command decision sir." (underbreath "stupid asshole")

command decision by Jim (Stoney) Burke February 14, 2006