My fellow Americans, I’m going to make a speech. I’m sorry it’s so long.

If I were an active duty officer in the US Army today, and I received an order to prepare my company to invade Greenland, I would call in my officers and NCOs, tell them that the President’s order is illegal and that I was going to refuse to obey the order.

You can stop reading now if you want to.

I was a US Army officer during the Vietnam War. That was a long time ago. At that time the US military made it clear to everyone, from the generals and admirals down to the greenest recruit, that committing war crimes was illegal and would get you court martialed and, if you were found guilty, you would be severely punished. Even if you were only following orders.

The reason for this policy was clearly stated by the authorities: war crimes hurt the American defense posture, even more than the attacks of our enemies.

The sudden emphasis on the problem of war crimes was set off by the national U.S. self-humiliation caused by the infamous My Lai incident.

The most important military alliance in American (or world) history is NATO. Eleven US Presidents have built this alliance. US taxpayers have contributed trillions of dollars and thousands of their sons’ lives to it over the past 80 years. Because of NATO, dictatorships have been replaced by liberal democracies all over Europe and Asia, and Planet Earth has been mostly at peace since 1945.

And now, somehow, we have an ignorant con-man as our President. He is desperately afraid of being put in jail. Everything he does is designed to distract the US public from his crimes. He says he wants to “invade Greenland,” a place that will lose all its defense and economic value to the USA if he invades it. He probably didn’t know it existed until he took office.

An invasion of Greenland will not break up NATO. NATO (perhaps under a different name) will continue after it kicks the USA out of its club.

When that happens, the USA will lose its participation and say-so in Western Europe.

Western Europe is the most modern, most faithful and reliable, the most democratic and law-abiding group of nations in the world. It is also a military superpower, the only one that is on our side.

If our madman President causes us to lose our place in NATO, our military posture relative to the world’s totalitarian powers and superpowers will be set back to the year 1920. Eighty years of American blood, sweat, tears and money will be thrown away by his single foolish act. This would be the most outrageous war crime in US history.

If I were an active duty officer in the US Army today, and I received an order to prepare my company to invade Greenland, I would call in my officers and NCOs, tell them that the President’s order is illegal and that I was going to refuse to obey the order.

I hope those of you who are on active duty will do the same.