David French

And one of the foundational elements of their claim that Russia is committing a crime against humanity is Russia's relentless campaign against Ukraine's infrastructure, that Russia has tried and tried and tried to totally annihilate Ukraine's infrastructure, which would plunge the country into unimaginable suffering.

It hasn't been able to do it successfully because of Ukrainian defenses.

And for a while, a lot of American support, now a lot of European support.

Ukraine has been remarkably resilient.

But he was trying to do something that we have condemned Vladimir Putin for attempting to do.

He was threatening to do something that we have condemned Vladimir Putin for attempting to do.

And by the way, and if he then ordered it, he doesn't just put it on Truth Social.

Let's suppose he had given the order.

If he had given an order to destroy, because this wasn't the first time he'd threatened a crime.

If he'd given an order to destroy all power plants, all bridges, all desalinization plants, which supply people with drinking water, if he had actually delivered that order, it would have been an illegal order.

Clearly illegal.

Now, the Department of Defense Law of War Manual says there is an obligation to defy an order when it is clearly illegal.

We were staring at the precipice of really an unprecedented crisis because if the military complies, you break the moral backbone of the military.

That's been the foundation of 50 years of reform since Vietnam.

You just break the moral backbone.

If it defies a president,

not a junior commander, not a major, not a captain, not a colonel, but the commander-in-chief of

then you create a massive constitutional crisis, just massive.

Because normally when somebody says, I'm not going to comply with an unlawful order, they have avenues to pursue.

They can go up the chain of command, for example.