Benghazi defender: Trump will do what’s right for our country

One of the security contractors who defended the CIA annex during the Benghazi attack is defending GOP front-runner Donald Trump against the notion that he would order troops to carry out illegal actions if elected president.  

“In Benghazi, we had to disobey orders, a stand-down order that was given to us by our chief of base to do what’s right,” Mark Geist, a former Marine and Trump supporter, told CNN on Monday. “I have never seen anything from Mr. Trump that would give me any indication that he isn’t going to do what’s right for our country.” 

{mosads}Geist was responding to comments from Michael Hayden, who said the military would have to disobey Trump if he followed through on statements to torture suspected terrorists and kill their families. 

“You’re required not to follow an unlawful order. That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict,” Hayden, a former CIA and NSA director and retired Air Force general, told TV host Bill Maher on Friday. 

Trump also said at a recent GOP debate that he would “bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” 

But Geist insisted on Monday that Trump would “do what’s right for this country.” 

“He’s going to talk to his military leaders, his advisers, and he’s going to do what’s right for this country,” he said.  

“That’s why he is who he is. He’s made his business; he’s made his career following what’s been dictated also by others, as well as the law. You’re not going to become as big as he is — he’s an intelligent man,” he added. 

Asked if he would waterboard suspected terrorists if asked, however, Geist said, “What I would do is follow the law, because that’s first and foremost. And President Trump would also do the same thing.” 

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst, said troops take an oath to obey the Constitution and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which would be violated by some of the actions Trump is suggesting. 

“So if a president — any president — were to ask a military member to do anything that’s either illegal, immoral or unethical, they have the moral responsibility to refuse that order,” said Hertling.

He noted that soldiers have been hanged for obeying illegal orders from Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. 

“You go to the Nuremberg trials where soldiers obeyed the illegal, unethical and immoral orders of Adolf Hitler, they were all hanged for that because they were not only violating the law of warfare, they were also violating a social custom to relate well and provide dignity and respect for all human beings,” he said. 

“And we have history that we read and rely on that says when soldiers do illegal, immoral or unethical acts, they are held responsible for it — that’s what the UCMJ, or Uniform Code of Military Justice, says,” he said.  

Geist argued that today’s terrorists are beheading Christians and committing far more immoral acts. 

“Right now we have people out there beheading Christians, killing their children, killing Muslims indiscriminately who don’t agree with how they should believe in the Quran,” he said. 

“What we need is someone who’s going to be strong and do what’s right and listen to his military and do what’s right and have a strong country,” he said.