I do understand that to curt, ALL military are "soldiers." Nothing could be further from the truth. His "reference" is only about US Army personnel with the MOS of 11BXX.
Andrew Milburn retired from the Marine Corps in 2019 as the Deputy Commander of Special Operations Command Central, the headquarters responsible for all US special operations in the Middle East. So admittingly, there are some creds there. "There are circumstances under which a military officer is not only justified but also obligated to disobey a legal order.
First, if it's a "legal order," you're going to have a hard time at your court martial. We've already discussed that ad nauseum.
Here's the "rest of the story" (Thank you Paul Harvey)
Milburn is very specific in what he says. The questions I have. Did the president declare the drug trade from Venezuela "a threat to our national security." It doesn't matter what you or I think at all. None of us have that power. So the answer is "yes, he did declare the cartels (specifically TdA, Cartel de los Soles, et al) as terrorists. This opens up a whole bunch of powers under the PATRIOT Act. Cartel de los Soles are on the same level now as jihadists. Cartel de los Soles is the special kid on the short bus. And the Venezuela government is the state sponsor. These are known quantities.
This comes from Jack Keane, a retired four-star Army general, on Tuesday and asked him to weigh in on the growing scandal surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
I think we should just hold our fire here a little bit and let’s get on with an investigation. I think the Pentagon should do the investigation. They do a lot of these things in the past, and they’re very good at getting the facts out with all the variables and complexities that are involved here. And things are flying around by people that just don’t know what they’re talking about,” Keane replied, adding:
...if you have an operation on the ground and you have wounded soldiers as a result of it, of course, we don’t kill those wounded soldiers because we’re in control. Actually, the obligation is to take them prisoner and, after our wounded are treated, treat those wounded and evacuate them. But these are isolated events.
...if the target is people or it’s a facility and both of those are important, the objective is to kill the people and destroy the facility. If the target is a boat and people, the mission is to destroy the boat and kill the people. In about 25% of these kinds of attacks, we do reattack—either if the facility was the objective, to destroy the rest of the facility; if the people are the objective, to kill the rest of the people.
That’s just the reality of what we’re dealing with, and people have got to get their head around this, and they’re misinterpreting what is taking place here. And certainly, when we reattack on the ground or at sea, many of those people—they may have been armed, but they’re going to be in a disarrayed state. But the target is the people, and if we can’t get to those people and take them prisoner, then I think the commander is likely acting properly. But I don’t even know all the facts and circumstances, certainly. I’m just basing it on my years of experience.
...Keane repeated, “Need an investigation here. I just wish people would hold their emotions and their fire and let that take place.”
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