When generals say no

Retired US General Mark Hertling sat on Monday evening in the podcast “Deadline: White House” on MSNBC and said something that would have been unthinkable in normal times: Active military commanders are thinking about refusing orders from their commander in chief Donald Trump.

Not out of disloyalty. But out of duty.

Mark Hertling is a former Lieutenant General of the US Army with over 35 years of service and was among the senior commanders of US forces in Europe. He led, among other things, US Army Europe. Hertling explained how he was trained for 40 years as a soldier and commander - and how in that training three loyalties exist side by side: to the Constitution, to superiors, to one’s own soldiers. Three oaths of loyalty that usually align. And sometimes do not.

“If they start giving unlawful orders, you find a way to push back,” Hertling said. “You cannot follow an unlawful order. You cannot order things that you know are absolutely wrong.”

What Trump has said specifically is not hard to find. He gave Iran an ultimatum: By Tuesday evening at 8 PM Eastern Time the Strait of Hormuz must be reopened - otherwise there will be “complete destruction.” Bridges, power plants, civilian infrastructure. “I mean total demolition,” Trump said. They would “bomb Iran back to the Stone Age.”

On Truth Social he phrased it the way he phrases it: “Open the damn strait, you crazy bastards, or you will live in hell.”

This is not a style of politics. This is a problem.

Because attacks on civilian infrastructure - power plants, water supply, bridges without military purpose - violate the Geneva Conventions. The United States has signed these conventions. Soldiers who carry out such orders are criminally liable under international law. Soldiers who give such orders are as well.

Hertling’s statement is therefore so significant because it shows how far the situation has already escalated - not only diplomatically, but within the American military apparatus itself. When a former general speaks publicly about active commanders considering refusing orders, then someone told him that. Or he knows it from his own experience within these networks.

The White House has not responded to a request so far.

Trump himself, asked at a press conference on Monday about his stance on the conflict, said: “God does not like what is happening here. I do not like it either.” He claimed he does not enjoy this war. When asked whether God approves of the war, he simply answered: “Yes.”

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has made clear that its bases may not be used for an attack on Iran. Prime Minister Keir Starmer communicated this directly.

That is the situation on Tuesday, April 7, 2026: An American president threatens a country with the Stone Age. His own military doubts whether it is allowed to follow him. An ally denies him the base. And the Strait of Hormuz - through which a significant portion of global oil trade flows - remains blocked.