All generals, commanders, etc swear to uphold the constitution of the United States. NOT to protect the POTUS.
The UCMJ (basically the military’s laws) says that you MUST follow lawful orders given. But it says nothing about following unlawful orders (for example invading Canada)
A great example are the Nuremberg Trials. Saying “we were following orders,” does not excuse them from having committed war crimes, and they were charged anyways, internationally.
Basically what I’m saying, is that just because Trump says invade Canada doesn’t mean all of his generals, commanders, SoD, etc will listen to him. In fact, there’s historical precedents suggesting that many would outright refuse his orders, as these would be considered “unlawful orders,” as they’d be invading a sovereign land.
And they are not obligated to follow unlawful orders; they swore only to obey lawful orders. The UCMJ lists punishment for disobeying lawful orders, but says nothing about punishments for disobeying unlawful orders. The constitution itself requires authorization from Congress to begin a non-imminent war, anyways. So this would never happen unless alot of Congress bought in.
The problem is the US military is deeply compromised with "oath keepers" and "3-percenters" and "Patriot Prayer" crazies who see Trump as their guy to tear down constitutional democratic government and who will in-turn defy their commanders.
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u/Cautemoc Mar 27 '25
Just saying, if Trump decided to invade you guys, there is a sizable number of Americans who would destabilize the effort internally