Please read beyond the headline. I spent 20 years in the Army, with a good part of it being in nuclear capable artillery units. There is a procedure for the authorization for the use of nuclear weapons that is to be followed. This general is, in my view, saying that he will follow procedures and 2) read the 3d paragraph:
“I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” Hyten 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 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.”
These liberal reporters are asking leading questions to cause trouble and bait reactions such as yours. If I were still in and the president ordered me to kill civilians or prisoners of war, I would refuse to obey him because such an order is illegal under the UCMJ. Thus am I a ‘perfumed prince’ or ‘deserved to get my ass kicked’ because I refused to obey an illegal order?
The title is purposely misleading.
After I heard about this story I decided to look into General Hyten’s history and ended up watching a good part of his 2014 Senate confirmation hearing on C-Span.
There were two times the question of ‘who has the authority to order a nuclear strike’ came up during the hearing, once in passing and once upon direct questioning from Sen Manchin of West Virginia.
Both times General Hyten expressed his understanding that the authority to launch a nuclear strike rests solely with the Commander and Chief as per the US Constitution, and both times there was one Senator who interrupted and tried to ‘correct’ him.
For 50 bonus points and to move on to the next round, name that Senator.
*folks at home can forward to 1:24 on the linked video to find out who it is.