Top US Nuclear Commander Won’t Launch ‘Illegal’ Nuclear Strike

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General John Hyten (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

by Michael John Scott

The commander of US Strategic Command says he wouldn’t launch a nuclear strike he believed to be “illegal” if ordered to do so by President Trump, CBS News reports.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the top US nuclear commander, says he doesn’t take the responsibility lightly. “We’re not stupid people,” he said Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia. “We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?” That includes what to do if the president gave an order for an unlawful nuclear strike.

“If it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen?” Hyten said. “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.” He added: “It’s not that complicated.”
Hyten’s comments came just four days after a Senate committee held the first congressional hearing on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike in more than 40 years, reports Reuters.  In addition, in an effort to prevent a reckless leader from killing us all, senators are pushing for legislation to curb the president’s power to unilaterally launch a nuclear strike.
During the hearing, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said Trump “can launch nuclear codes just as easily as he can use his Twitter account.”  Think about that for a minute.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Ron Reed
6 years ago

Trumpenstein will want to fire this guy for that. And he can.

jess
6 years ago

Oh this is going to set dolt45 on a twitter spree in 3.2.1.

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