Not Guilty (?)
Posted on 11/18/2017 3:07:30 PM PST by mandaladon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. nuclear commander was quoted as saying on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an “illegal” launch of nuclear weapons.
CBS News said Air Force General John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada that he had given a lot of thought to what he would say if he received such an order.
“I think some people think we’re stupid,” Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. “We’re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?”
CBS said Hyten, who is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, explained the process that would follow such a command.
“As head of STRATCOM, I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” he said.
“And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I‘m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up (with) options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”
Hyten said running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order was standard practice, and added: “If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hyten’s remarks.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Why hasn’t Trump already fired this hack.
Fire the general.
This guy may not hold that position much longer with comments like that.
The General should have already resigned if that’s what a feels.
This was discussed in an earlier thread. Apparently what the general said was not at all controversial, but was twisted into a very misleading headline.
As if Trump would do an illegal order. Swamper.
copied
Hyten explained the process that would follow such a command. As head of STRATCOM, Hyten is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
“I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” Hyten added. “And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”
Hyten said he has been trained every year for decades in the law of armed conflict, which takes into account specific factors to determine legality — necessity, distinction, proportionality, unnecessary suffering and more. Running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order is standard practice, he said.
“If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life,” Hyten said.
These series of paragraphs tells us this safeguard has been in position for decades, spanning many Presidents.
But, of course, CBS spins it to “See how out-of-control Trump is???!?
At least the third time this article has been posted just today ...
This is fake news, generated to try to make Trump look unhinged.
If any government employee is asked the question, “If the President asked you to do something illegal, would you do it?” The answer is obviously, “No.”
This is just sensational because we are talking about nukes.
If the order was illegal, then of course he should refuse.
People think Generals—or anyone else in the military —are robots that just blindly do whatever they are told.
All Generals should resist obeying illegal orders.
Trumps orders wouldn’t be illegal and this guy should be imprisoned.
Soon to be FORMER General!
Why is this jackass out giving speeches about his duties?
We elected president trump. We didn’t elect the general. I’m aware of no such thing as an “illegal” order from our Commander in Chief. If the general knows something I don’t he’d better explain it now. Or else he’s just resigned his commission.
If the General gets an order he’s going to consult with a JAG?
I suppose he thinks he’ll know all the reasons the order is being given so he can figure out if its legal before he follows it. .
This guy needs to be shit canned yesterday.
It is the duty of every officer to disobey illegal orders. That is true no matter who is in the White House. The question then becomes, "what is illegal?"
In Military Ethics at West Point, we were taught that an officer should be prepared to resign rather than carry out orders that violate his conscience. If General Hyten doesn't want to obey lawful orders from the POTUS that he finds distasteful, he can resign or face a court martial. All that said, the general seems to have shown a stunning lack of judgment here. I haven't seen the precise text of the question posed (even though I saw his response). But the point of the question appears to be to get the general to undermine the moral authority of the Commander-in-Chief. And by playing into it, he helped the President's domestic enemies (and yes, "enemies" is the right word).
Just so. The General explained to the reporter what the laws are. It’s a fairly complicated business. Then CBS, as expected, completely misrepresented what he said. If he made a mistake, it was to talk to the news media at all, and say ANYTHING.
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