The technical legalities are iffy for troops.Broglio: US troops could refuse Greenland orders
The archbishop of the U.S. military services said U.S. troops in good conscience could refuse orders to invade an ally.
Speaking to the BBC on Jan. 18. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services said he “cannot see any circumstances” in which an American military operation to take control of Greenland or another ally’s territory could fulfill the criteria for a just war.
The archbishop also said administration rhetoric on Greenland “tarnishes the image of the United States.”
Asked whether he is concerned about Catholics serving in the military who might be asked to participate in a military operation to take control of Greenland, Broglio responded, “I am obviously worried, because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable.”
“And it would be very difficult for a soldier or a Marine or a sailor by himself to disobey an order such as that,” he continued. “But strictly speaking, he or she, within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order. But that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern.”
In an interview earlier this month, Trump was asked about the limits of his power to act globally.
The president responded that the only thing that limits him is “my own morality,” also saying, “I don’t need international law.”
An illegal order is an order that requires a soldier to break a law--a law that's applicable to that soldier. If the law is not applicable to that soldier, it's technically not illegal to order the soldier to break it.
So, there is a 2023 law that prohibits the president from withdrawing from NATO without Congressional approval. But there is no law explicitly making it illegal for a soldier to be deployed to Greenland, despite the fact that deploying him to Greenland would result in the US no longer being a member of NATO. That is to say, there is no law by which soldiers themselves can be prosecuted for being in Greenland. So, it would not be illegal for them to obey such an order.
And whether the 2023 law is powerful enough to prevent the president from giving the order would have to go to court. The bad thing about that is that the Congress historically lets the president get away with anything he does with the military, and the court historically shies away from how the president controls the military.
So...nobody has a clear legal requirement to tell the president, "No" to a deployment to Greenland. Or anywhere, actually.
The generals would have to respect the spirit of the intent of Congress. Knowing that the intent of Congress is to keep the US in NATO, and knowing that putting troops in Greenland is tantamount to the US withdrawing from NATO, the generals would have to be willing to resign en masse in respect to the spirit of the law, not to the letter of the law. They would have to do what Admiral Holsey did with respect to Venezuela.
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