U.S. ADMIRAL SAYS READY TO NUKE CHINA
Canberra, July 27: The US Pacific Fleet chief said he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if President Donald Trump ordered it.
Adm. Scott Swift was responding to a hypothetical question following a major USAustralian military exercise off. The drills were monitored by a Chinese intelligencegathering ship.
Canberra, Australia, July 27: The U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said on Thursday he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if President Donald Trump ordered it, and warned against the military ever shifting its allegiance from its commander in chief.
Adm. Scott Swift was responding to a hypothetical question at an Australian National University security conference following a major joint U.S.-Australian military exercise off the Australian coast. The drills were monitored by a Chinese intelligencegathering ship off northeast Australia.
Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Mr Trump ordered it, Mr Swift replied, “The answer would be: Yes.”
“Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us,” Mr Swift said.
He added, “This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.”
Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown later said Mr Swift’s answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military. “The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military,” Brown said.
The biennial Talisman Saber exercise involved 36 warships including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, 220 aircraft and 33,000 military personnel.
— AFP