A four-star US general made news by saying he would not obey an illegal order by the President.

[shenmue]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/21/opinions/air-force-generals-remarkable-unremarkable-comments-kirby/?iid=ob_mobile_article_footer_expansion

[WinkyDink]

1. This shouldn't be news. NO soldier is required to obey an illegal

command.

[zipplewrath]

4. Quite the opposite

A soldier is required to NOT obey an "illegal" order.

[Girard442]

6. It's news like it would be news if one of your kids out of the blue says...

"I'm not getting in any car where the grownup driving is drunk."

Yeah, technically that was always true but it's a heckuva thing for them to just up and say it.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Active duty general is saying this? Wow. This is remarkable.

The S*hit is hitting the fan.

[Achilleaze]

3. General refuses to betray America, and so...

you can expect the KGOP republican TreasonWeasels will be out for his scalp. repubes cannot stand anyone acting out of integrity.

[oberliner]

5. He did not say that

Here's what he actually said:

"I provide advice to the President," Hyten said. "He'll tell me what to do, and if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm gonna say, 'Mr. President, that's illegal.' Guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works. It's not that complicated."

My question to him would be, what if Trump doesn't ask "what would be legal?" but instead says "I don't care if you think it's illegal, I want you to do it anyway" ? That, to me, would be a more likely response from Trump. Would he then refuse to carry out the order?

[gratuitous]

7. Not to mention . . .

What are Gen. Hyten's qualifications for deeming a presidential order to be illegal? Is he a lawyer? Does he excuse himself in the middle of the meeting to consult with a lawyer? Trump's own lawyers learned never to meet with him one-on-one, because Trump would agree to do one thing in a meeting, then do something totally different.

If Hyten is "guessing" that he knows what he will do in that situation and what Trump will do, he's fooling himself.