it only counts when its them and not us;

President Donald Trump threatens to hang military officers who have the audacity to tell their troops not to obey unlawful orders. Trump called them ‘traitors’ and suggested they be locked up.

The president just crossed the Rubicon. Formerly his language was amusing TV banter. Now, after these threats, he has gone way too far. Americans should be alarmed.

I enlisted in the US Army in 1969 to become an infantry officer and served in Vietnam. At the time, I foolishly thought this colonial war was just part of our American way of life.

In basic and advanced infantry training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, we were educated in the military code of conduct, the legal system underlying the conduct of soldiers.

The most important single lesson that I vividly recall was the order to refuse any orders seen as illegal – that is, in violation of US law and the Geneva Conventions. This command did not come out of the blue. It was promulgated as a result of the Nuremburg Trials after World War II in which much of the senior German elite was found guilty of war crimes, and many sentenced to death.........more.........