General Milley and "the book" ???

sorry, he doesn't get to make that call. doesn't matter what his concern was, and it absolutely WAS political

he should be gone today - but alas, won't be held accountable

doesn't matter what your opinion of Trump is, we just CAN'T have the military leaders deciding they know best, and creating their own foreign policy, and undermining civilian leadership. that's almost the definition of a military coup

"if we are going to attack, i will tell you in advance, it won't be a surprise" - seriously??
 
A6E Dad said:
sorry, he doesn't get to make that call. doesn't matter what his concern was, and it absolutely WAS political

he should be gone today - but alas, won't be held accountable

doesn't matter what your opinion of Trump is, we just CAN'T have the military leaders deciding they know best, and creating their own foreign policy, and undermining civilian leadership. that's almost the definition of a military coup

"if we are going to attack, i will tell you in advance, it won't be a surprise" - seriously??
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I respect your opinion. Help me understand why you think it was political.
 
A6E Dad said:
sorry, he doesn't get to make that call. doesn't matter what his concern was, and it absolutely WAS political

he should be gone today - but alas, won't be held accountable

doesn't matter what your opinion of Trump is, we just CAN'T have the military leaders deciding they know best, and creating their own foreign policy, and undermining civilian leadership. that's almost the definition of a military coup

"if we are going to attack, i will tell you in advance, it won't be a surprise" - seriously??
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I agree. As much as I've disagreed with the decisions of our political leadership over the decades, I still firmly believe in the civilian over military system we have in place. The model that General Milley used makes us no better than a banana republic.
 
A6E Dad said:
because he was actively communicating (colluding?) with Pelosi and Schumer and not with anyone in the administration, among other things
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Difficult line to walk there. The specific issue was Trump's perceived mental state escalated by intel that suggested China thought the US attack was imminent. If Milley had legit concerns in that position, what other Congressional audience would listen?
 
So- how about in the final days of Watergate when the SecDef (Schlesinger) set up a safety loop to prevent Nixon from executing a military strike without his or Kissinger's (SecState) approval? They did that because they were concerned that the President of the United States was unstable at that point and might use his authority to unleash the unthinkable as a diversion . So was that wrong? https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...d-trump-nuclear-weapons-richard-nixon-215478/
Certainly it seems pretty reasonable to me for Gen Miley as the CJCS to reassure the Chinese that the United States was not spinning out of control with an potentially unhinged chief executive with his finger on the button. It seems a darn sight better than the alternative which was to let them guess if the President- the same President who was egging on a crowd intent on overthrowing the Government- was unhinged, unconstrained and potentially an existential danger. And it seems like an odd comparison to a banana republic when the action was reassuring the Civilian leadership of the other branches of the Government, that the Military was not going to be used to allow an overthrow of the election. His and all Officer's oaths are to support and defend the Constitution- which from what I can see was what he told the leaders of the House and Senate as well as the members of the Armed Forces underneath him. Hardly a Banana Republic act.
 
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IF(!) true, it would be a serious breach of authority that threatens the credibility of civilian control of the military, and indicates a potential flag officer willing to leak military plans to a (in that scenario) enemy foreign power.
...not good.
 
Supersix00 said:
Difficult line to walk there. The specific issue was Trump's perceived mental state escalated by intel that suggested China thought the US attack was imminent. If Milley had legit concerns in that position, what other Congressional audience would listen?
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Quite frankly, after four years of the Russian hoax and the impeachment for the call to Ukraine, the citizens deserve answers.

The intelligence has been suspect. Wasn’t it Milley that said Russia put out hits against American military in Afghanistan after Trump came out wanting to bring troops home?

Strip the politics. i want the truth why all this happened.
 
bruno said:
So- how about in the final days of Watergate when the SecDef (Schlesinger) set up a safety loop to prevent Nixon from executing a military strike
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well for one, the Service Secretaries and the Service Chiefs below them actually report to SecDef, he is in the Chain of Command. CJCOS isn't in the chain of command, and for him to insert himself and demand that the service chiefs only take orders from his is completely wrong.

I do agree that regular comms between CJCOS and his counterpart in China isn't a bad thing, and telling them "don't worry this is messy but we're not planning an attack" isn't the bad part. but the key is that he needs to be supporting the President and his policies. if he can't do that then he should have resigned
 
bruno said:
So- how about in the final days of Watergate when the SecDef (Schlesinger) set up a safety loop to prevent Nixon from executing a military strike without his or Kissinger's (SecState) approval? They did that because they were concerned that the President of the United States was unstable at that point and might use his authority to unleash the unthinkable as a diversion . So was that wrong? https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...d-trump-nuclear-weapons-richard-nixon-215478/
Certainly it seems pretty reasonable to me for Gen Miley as the CJCS to reassure the Chinese that the United States was not spinning out of control with an potentially unhinged chief executive with his finger on the button. It seems a darn sight better than the alternative which was to let them guess if the President- the same President who was egging on a crowd intent intent on overthrowing the Government- was unhinged, unconstrained and potentially an existential danger. And it seems like an odd comparison to a banana republic when the action was reassuring the Civilian leadership of the other branches of the Government, that the Military was not going to be used to allow an overthrow of the election. His and all Officer's oaths are to support and defend the Constitution- which from what I can see was what he told the leaders of the House and Senate as well as the members of the Armed Forces underneath him. Hardly a Banana Republic act.
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I don’t believe this is true. People in Trump’s whitehouse said it wasn’t true.

Nothing like a real investigation to find out!
 
I must have been totally out of it the day Congress declared war on China.

By the way, you'll soon be hearing about the November 11, 2020 memo signed by the former guy where he ordered all US troops out of Afghanistan by January 15, 2021.
 
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I can see how there are many average citizens who were gaslighted by the daily barrage from the MSM that Trump was capable of going rogue, but the CJCOS? He either needs to deny it or answer for it.

I heard an excellent comment last night... As a journalist, Woodward should have made this known months ago. It is that important. Instead, he sat on the story for the sake of his book sales.
 
EDelahanty said:
By the way, you'll soon be hearing about the November 11, 2020 memo signed by the former guy where he ordered all US troops out of Afghanistan by January 15, 2021.
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IF that is true, it would not have been in the face of all of the Taliban interference because the Taliban does not fight or operate during the winter. Even the original May 1st date is just at the start of the actual operating season of the Taliban and significant resistance from them would have been difficult for them to pull together. Talk to some Afghan vets and you'll get more info on how the seasons affect operations there.
 
The Washington Post said:
“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”
In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “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.”

Li took the chairman at his word, the authors write in the book, "Peril" which is set to be released next week.
In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”
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I missed that part about telling your enemies when and where you're going to attack in my training as an officer. It was pretty dry stuff, so I may have dozed off that day. Is this an Army thing? ;)
 
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There is a Constitutional process to deal with Presidential fitness issues. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not part of that process. He is an adviser to the President and Secretary of Defense and is not a part of the chain of command.

The President does not have his "finger on the button", as there are numerous checks and balances in both a nuclear and non-nuclear scenario. Any assertion by Milley that he needed to take action to prevent a catastrophe is fanciful.

If the report is true, what Milley did was disloyal, overtly political, and possibly treasonous.
 
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