We live in Strangelovian times.

Fact is, the only thing that can stop an unhinged president from starting an unprovoked war or even a surprise nuclear strike is a guy like Gen. Mark A. Milley. And there’s the rub.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice requires sworn officers to carry out even a horrible order—of which there have been many in the annals of war.  It’s the kind of dilemma that was dramatized in the hit 1992 court martial drams A Few Good Men (which could’ve had many a remake over the past 20 years since 9/11). But in a scenario involving big power tensions and nuclear weapons, it’s a dilemma with existential dimensions. 

President Donald Trump had every legal right to order an attack on China, or Iran or North Korea, even a nuclear strike, according to the Constitution, but that doesn’t mean Milley or some other authoritative figure didn’t have the moral right or duty to warn his generals to check with them first and assure China or whomever that no such plans were underway—…