The military wouldn’t save us from a President Trump’s illegal orders
Donald Trump promises that if Americans send him to the White House, hell bring back waterboarding and techniques that are a hell of a lot worse. Why? Because torture works, he claims, and even if it doesnt work, they deserve it anyway. Thats not Trumps only bright idea for U.S. counterterrorism policy. Hed also bomb the hell out of ISIS, and he favors targeting the spouses and children of Islamic State group fighters, too, since with the terrorists, you have to take out their families. That kind of rhetoric from the Republican front-runner has rightly alarmed the foreign policy establishment, prompting an open letter last week from an array of Republican advisers opposing Trump.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, who also served as a four-star Air Force general and the director of the National Security Agency, sees a remedy: The military would save us from Trumps excesses if he somehow gets elected. If any future president wants
to waterboard anybody, he better bring his own bucket, Hayden has said. The Pentagon would never let him get away with war crimes: The American armed forces would refuse to act, he told HBOs Bill Maher recently. You are required not to follow an unlawful order.
Haydens right that any presidential order to use torture or deliberately target civilians would be illegal. Under international and U.S. law, both are grave crimes, punishable by imprisonment or, under U.S. law, death. Hes also right that military personnel have no duty to obey unlawful orders, even if they come straight from the top.
But dont count on the Pentagon to stop President Trump. Trump himself, asked at a Republican debate Thursday night what he would do if the military refused to obey his orders, seemed aware of that: They wont refuse. Theyre not going to refuse. Believe me.
If I say Do it, theyre going to do it.
http://www.stripes.com/opinion/the-military-wouldn-t-save-us-from-a-president-trump-s-illegal-orders-1.397808