Not Guilty (?)
There is no such thing as an illegal command given by the Command in Chief, General. Sans knowing that simple little fact invalidates your capability to serve any longer in your position.
Dereliction of Duty.
So cinc orders a strike on an orphanage but it the general who calls the missile officer is the one issuing an illegal order?
Yes there is. But this should be fired.
bullshit, you are wrong wrong wrong, no order is presumptively legal.
Nothing could be further from the truth. That stance lost ALL of its luster during the Nuremberg Trials.
Sure there is - it’s embodied in the different oaths that enlisted and officers take.
Enlisted oath states “and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
Officers oath specifically does not have that line - because historically it is the officer who is supposed to determine and take on the risk of what is and is not an illegal order.
I had a CO tell me to fill out NJP paperwork including sentence prior to going to Captain’s Mast because he already knew what he wanted to do and wanted to speed up the paperwork. I refused that order and explained that I couldn’t do that as it would be a breach of due process. He pondered it a second, but relented.
Laws of war are well established on what is considered an illegal order. For example: ordering the shooting prisoners of war is an illegal order. The person at refusing the order is at risk and must demonstrably prove it is an illegal order, but if they follow an illegal order then they are considered culpable in the illegal order even if all they were doing is “following orders”.
Not saying I agree with the General putting his opinion out there - and think the news here is mangling what he was trying to say. But he should have kept his yap shut anyway.
“There is no such thing as an illegal command given by the Command in Chief, General. Sans knowing that simple little fact invalidates your capability to serve any longer in your position”
I dont know if its changed but you don’t have an obligation to obey an illegal order. But you do so at your own peril.
Sorry but there is. Stop looking and talking like fools. The president does not have the sole authority to release nuclear weapons on a whim. The rules and procedures were put into place and fine tuned over many years to prevent any president or general or other defense official in the National Command Authority from instigating a renegade act.
So if you were the general last year, and Pres Obama called up and told you to nuke Texas, you would salute and hit the button? How about just Tel Aviv?
There are protocols in place to cover the initiation of a nuclear first strike. Now, a nuclear RESPONSE to an incoming attack would necessarily be a different story.