Editorial: Trump discovers laws
Donald Trump, who used to say the U.S. should shoot the families of terrorists, now says he would abide by the law and not order shootings but would "like to see the law expanded."
He offered that concession after retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who has led both the CIA and the National Security Agency, told an interviewer "the American armed forces would refuse to act" on an order to kill terrorist family members.
We should damn well hope so.
Any such order would put the most powerful possible recruiting tool in the hands of terrorist groups like ISIS, estrange our allies, violate both the international laws of war and domestic law and stain our country's honor. Obedience by misguided troops would only compound the damage.
Hayden noted, "You are not required to follow an unlawful order." American soldiers are taught this, but also that the illegality must be clear. The person giving the order is entitled to the benefit of any doubt. Waterboarding (which Trump also endorses) of enemy combatants is widely (but not universally) considered torture, and the Bush administration was careful to get legal opinions (later disowned) that it was legal before resorting to it. It is now banned by executive order.
Irrationally rabid Trump supporters may object that terrorists are not eligible for the protections of the international laws of war. This is true. But the Fourth Geneva Convention says the Convention's provisions have "wider" application, and cover "the whole of the populations of the countries in conflict." Any attempt to invoke an exemption for ISIS families on the grounds that ISIS is not a country would be rejected with scorn by the other nations of the planet.
Trump has asserted that, "We have to play the game the way [the savages are] playing the game." He could not be more wrong. He would multiply the armies of the savages and further imperil us all
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