A retired US Army lieutenant general who spent nearly four decades in uniform has stated plainly that many senior military commanders are currently asking themselves whether they can lawfully comply with orders from Donald Trump, and that when an order is unlawful, officers are obligated to refuse it.
In a recent interview, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, former commanding general of US Army Europe under President Obama and commander of the 1st Armored Division during the 2007 Iraq surge, laid out the three competing loyalties that govern every officer in the American military. The first is the Constitution. The second is superiors, but only insofar as their orders are lawful. The third is the soldiers under their command. It is precisely the tension between these three, Hertling said, that is now playing out in real time inside the US chain of command.
