On Trump's Iran will ‘die’ threat, former US Army officer Lawrence Sellin says ‘military will not obey illegal orders’

After US President Donald Trump's threat to wipe out Iran, Lawrence Sellin, a retired US Army Reserve colonel, advised the United States to "immediately cease joint military operations with Israel."

The Iraq and Afghanistan veteran reacted to Trump's social media post on Tuesday to say that the "US military will not obey illegal orders." He also warned that “the issuance of illegal orders would create a Constitutional crisis.”

Sellin opined that Israel, "which wants to prolong the war, may do something rash and drag the US into it."

"The US must immediately cease joint military operations with Israel," Sellin wrote on X.

"However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The US president added, "47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

Trump's statement came as he set 8 pm ET Tuesday night as a deadline for Iran to strike a deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has already rejected the US' ceasefire proposal, demanding a total end to the war.

The Iranian Embassies around the world fired back Trump saying that that, "“Alexander burned it. The Mongols ravaged it. History tested it. #Iran is still here. A psychopath’s threats won’t end what time couldn’t.”

The Embassy of Iran in Pakistan also hot back, saying the US wouldn't “know how civilizations work because [they] never had one.” The embassy told Trump, “They [civilizations] are not born over a night and will not die over a night.”

According to the Citizens Commission on National Security, Sellin served in Afghanistan and Iraq and participated in a humanitarian mission to West Africa.

Sellin reportedly holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College and received training in Arabic, Kurdish and French from the Defense Language Institute.

He had a distinguished civilian career in medical research and international business after completing a Ph.D. in physiology, the report added.

It added that Sellin retired from IBM, where he was a manager and subject matter expert in telecommunications and command and control systems.

He is the author of numerous national security articles.

A report in The Independent from 2010 claimed that Colonel Lawrence Sellin was fired from his role after he wrote a column attacking the system for using relentless slide-show presentations to "cognitively challenged" generals instead of formulating coherent policy.