GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (HOST): General Allen, thank you for joining us this morning. You heard Mr. Trump there, he called you a “failed general.” The war in ISIS got worse under your leadership. Your response?
RET. GEN. JOHN ALLEN: Well, George, he has no credibility to criticize me, or my record, or anything I have done. If he'd spent a minute in the deserts of Afghanistan or in the deserts of Iraq, I might listen to what he has to say. He's got no credibility. In that regard, there has been progress with respect to the war against ISIS. We knew it was going to be a tough fight. But I don't have to justify myself to him. What we do have to do, George, is listen to what he's been saying about our military. He's called it “a disaster.” He says “our military can't win anymore.” That's a direct insult to every single man and woman who's wearing the uniform today. He's talked about needing to torture. He's talked about needing to murder the families of alleged terrorists. He's talked about carpet-bombing ISIL. Who do you think is going to get carpet-bombed when all of that occurs? It'll be innocent families.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me stop you right there. If indeed Mr. Trump did become president, how would the military respond to those kinds of orders, if indeed he followed through on some of the things he's said in this campaign?
ALLEN: That's a great question, George, and I think we would be facing a civil military crisis, the like of which we have not seen in this country before. From the moment that those of us who are commissioned, and of course all our enlisted troops as well, assume the mantle of our responsibility in uniform when we swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, which is a document on a set of principles, and it supports the rule of law. One of those is to ensure that we do not obey illegal orders. It's an inherent responsibility in who we are. So, what we need to do is ensure that we don't create an environment that puts us on a track that conceivably where the United States military finds itself in a civil military crisis with a commander in chief who would have us do illegal things. And my hope would be that the conversation would occur quietly in the Oval Office or somewhere else to advise him not the continue on this track. But, George, that's major issue that we're facing here. The potential for a civil military crisis where the military could be ordered to conduct illegal activities.
