the combatant commanders, based on geography, deliver orders. They only report to the SecDef and the President. The chairman of the joint chiefs is only an advisor and doesn’t direct troops in combat. there are also functional commands including the head of SOCOM which is this admiral. they generally support the geographic combatant commands. there are legal exceptions (bin laden raid under title 50
U.S. code for national security different from most military authorities under title 10). long winded way of saying it looks like the administration shopped for a 4 star who would finally say yes to what they wanted.

no way i’d want to be in the chain of command for those orders. I wonder which JAG they got to sign off. I think I know and he was my old boss. The SOUTHCOM USMC JA who didn’t agree was just ahead of me in school.