Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, undoubtedly scored major points with President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin by promoting the woke agenda within the ranks.
But after a Washington Post article on Tuesday, the issue is whether the Americans who rely on Milley’s judgment to keep them and their country safe should continue to depend on him.
The Post covered an excerpt of a new book, “Peril,” about the closing weeks of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration, by Post staffers Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
Citing the book the Post reported that Milley twice made secret calls to his counterpart in the Chinese army to reassure him that the U.S. would not attack its main rival.
According to the Post, the first call, a few days before the election, “was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by [former President Donald] Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.”
Part of that “belligerent” rhetoric used by the 45th president, the Post notes, included his use of the term “China virus” in reference to COVID-19, and Trump’s comment that China must be held accountable for unleashing this “plague” on the world.
Milley even went so far in that first call to assure Li that he would warn him if the U.S. opted to attack for some reason.
“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley reportedly told Li. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” Milley added, “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
As for the second call, two days after the riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Post reports that Li was “rattled” and not so easily calmed. And Milley concurred with him. The Post explained why.
Milley “believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable.” Pelosi reportedly called Trump “crazy” a few times during the call.
Based on his own assessment of Trump, Milley believed it was possible China might attack U.S. forces if it considered Trump unstable. So, he canceled a naval exercise in the region. He also gathered senior officers to review the process for launching nuclear weapons and notified them that, if Trump ordered that, Milley had to be involved.
Quite ironically, Milley has had no problem going along with the current president, who frequently seems mentally and intellectually taxed, who routinely seems quick to anger, and who often reverses himself and lies without remorse.
Perhaps that’s because Biden is more supine and conciliatory toward China.
The Post reports, “Milley, for his part, took what the authors describe as a deferential approach to Biden on Afghanistan, in contrast to his earlier efforts to constrain Trump.”
“Here’s a couple of rules of the road here that we’re going to follow. One is you never, ever ever box in a president of the United States. You always give him decision space,” Milley supposedly told the Joint Chiefs about Biden. And referring to Biden, he added, “You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is.”
The Post article closes with Milley supposedly seeing “parallels between Jan. 6 and the 1905 Russian Revolution, which set off unrest throughout the Russian Empire and, though it failed, helped create the conditions for the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks executed a successful coup that set up the world’s first communist state.”
“A similar logic could apply with Jan. 6, Milley thought as he wrestled with the meaning of that day, telling senior staff: “What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.”
So, in short, we now understand why the Biden administration increasingly sees the citizens it serves as an enemy and treats as friends the terrorists who run Afghanistan and the communists in charge of China.
On social media, many conservatives denounced Milley.
“The ‘insurrection’ wasn’t on January 6th. The insurrection was Mark Milley undermining authority of a duly elected president and secretly reaching out to the CCP. Strip him of his designation and court martial him,” tweeted former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch.
“It’s not news that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley baselessly thought President Trump would use nukes in his final days in office,” tweeted talk-radio host Jason Rantz. “The news is that he secretly held meetings to undercut an elected president. There are words to describe this and they don’t include ‘hero.’”
Former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka simply dubbed him a “coward.”
Support journalism by clicking here to our gofundme or sign up for our free newsletter by clicking here
Android Users, Click Here To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. It’s Free And Coming To Apple Users Soon.
If you want to label something “insurrection” think about a general officer plotting against his commander in chief. There is a place for this general — Leavenworth.
he should be put in front of a firing squad.