How should a military commander respond if they determine they have received an unlawful order?
Request to retire — and refrain from resigning in protest, which could be seen as a political act, or picking a fight to get fired.
That was the previously unreported guidance that Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar, the top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave to the country’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, in November, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
Caine had just seen a video that included six Democratic lawmakers publicly urging U.S. troops to disobey illegal orders. He asked Widmar, according to the sources, what the latest guidance was on how to determine whether an order was lawful and how a commander should reply if it is not.
Widmar responded that they should consult with their legal adviser if they’re unsure, the sources said. But ultimately, if they determine that an order is illegal, they should consider requesting retirement.
The guidance sheds new light on how top military officials are thinking about an issue that has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, as lawmakers and legal experts have repeatedly questioned the legality of the U.S. military’s counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean — including intense scrutiny of a “double-tap” strike that deliberately killed survivors on Sept. 2.
Caine is not in the chain of command. But he is closely involved in operations, including those in SOUTHCOM, and is often tasked with presenting military options to the president—more so than Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CNN has reported.
The Joint Staff declined to comment for this story.
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