ANALYSIS – During his tenure under President Trump, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley angered a lot of people, including me. His comments about understanding ‘white rage' related to the Jan. 6 riot and Critical Race Theory (CRT) indoctrination at the Pentagon were some of the dumbest things I've ever heard from a JCS Chairman.
But sticking to the area of civil military relations, an excerpt in the New Yorker from the new book by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, ‘Inside the War Between Trump and His Generals,' How Mark Milley and others in the Pentagon handled the national-security threat posed by their own Commander-in-Chief, tries to paint Milley, and several other generals, as a heroes fighting an erratic and dangerous president.
What many political military experts see though is a man who often came dangerously close to usurping the role of president.
While I may agree with some of the issues that Milley and the other generals tried to fight Trump on, like leaving Syria, withholding aid from Ukraine, withdrawing from Afghanistan and several others, the Constitution doesn't give Milley, or any other general, the right to undermine or veto lawful presidential orders.
These are policy differences.
The question of where these conniving generals were when President Biden recklessly withdrew from Afghanistan, and committed other egregious blunders, is also one to ponder.
As Politico's NatSec Daily newsletter notes:
The Glasser/Baker excerpt shows a [JCS] chair working internally against Trump's desires, namely to withdraw troops from Germany, send active-duty soldiers to quash domestic protests and counter Iran. But even if Milley deemed those orders awful, he must obey them as long as they were lawful.
If he doesn't, “the military becomes an arbiter of the political fate of the country and that's undemocratic and inappropriate,” said LINDSAY COHN, a civil-military relations expert at the U.S. Naval War College (speaking for herself as an academic and not the institution or Navy).
Reinforcing that point, NatSec Daily adds:
The American Enterprise Institute's KORI SCHAKE said she plans to teach the article in class: “The exam question will be for students to identify the number of civil-military norms violated by Gen. Milley in the course of this story.”
The book excerpt also rehashes Milley's decision to follow Trump to Lafayette Square on June 1, the morning after the violent and fiery BLM rioting across from the White House that I personally witnessed the night before.
The New Yorker of course downplays the BLM riot.
Milley reportedly was so vexed by his decision to join Trump that morning, among many other things, that he drafted a resignation letter.
The final version, dated June 8, read in part:
I regret to inform you that I intend to resign as your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Thank you for the honor of appointing me as senior ranking officer. The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I've come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
Had he resigned, I would have had far more respect for him.
However, according to the excerpt, former Secretary of Defense and CIA chief, Robert Gates told Milley: “Make them fire you. Don't resign.” The article continues:
Milley had finally come to a decision. He would not quit. “Fuck that shit,” he told his staff. “I'll just fight him.” The challenge, as he saw it, was to stop Trump from doing any more damage, while also acting in a way that was consistent with his obligation to carry out the orders of his Commander-in-Chief… “If they want to court-martial me, or put me in prison, have at it,” Milley told his staff. “But I will fight from the inside.”
This is what causes the most concern. Since when is it anyone working for the President of the United State's job, much less the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to fight him from the inside?
“I think reasonable people can disagree on whether he made the right choices,” Cohen said of Milley, “but I also think it's important for all of us to ask ourselves where exactly we think that line is.”
This is a key question for the future, and one that not many of our leaders seem to be considering. In my book Milley crossed the line under Trump.
My question is, did he set a precedent? ALD
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
READ NEXT: Milley Responds to Accusations of Breaking Chain of Command >>
Fire him unfit for command
When President Trump is re-elected he MUST try this POS for treason.
Sid, as much as I really hate to say it, I think Trump being elected isn’t when but if. And that is a BIG IF. I say that because of the fraud that’s been taking place by the so called democrats who’re nothing but a bunch of communists taking over our country because of stupid people who blindly vote for them without checking backgrounds.
He’s not the only one that needs to be fired. Starting back with the America hating obama when he began purging all the leaders in the military that didn’t believe as he did, and what we are left with are nothing but politicians in uniform. That’s caused many of our military members to leave their branch of service because they could see how the military was being downgraded, and they were being force fed the ” woke ” line of thinking that is ruining this nation. We better hope that we don’t get into an actual shooting war because with what’s going to be left of the military, they could very well lose, all because the troops of today are not interested in fighting to save our nation. Seeing what’s happening to this country, and our military, I have to wonder if my 26 years in the service of my country was worth it.
That would have been 80 generals.
I definitely agree. As for Obama, he committed treason when he shipped millions in unmarked currency in an unmarked aircraft in the middle of the night to an obscure airfield in Iran, a sworn enemy of the U.S. In doing that, he aided and abetted the enemy. That is a crime punishable by death. And I feel Biden did pretty much the same thing with what he did to our southern border. No telling how anti American terrorists managed to get into this country.
Millie should be kicked out of the Army. He’s only a boot licking yes man for Biden. Almost 80 years ago I did a hitch in the Navy and at that time all the services had leadership. It’s a real shame to feel this way but in my opinion the military in general has little or leadership. Generals like Patton would say ‘Follow me!” Admirals like Bull Halsey would say the same. Now people like Millie would say, “Go ahead, I’ll be along later.” And the feeling I have goes all the way up to the Commander in Chief. Our country needs leadership in general and that’s something it simply does not have.
A bigger problem is that Patton and Halsey were leading men to fight Americans’ enemies. Millie sees Americans as the enemy.
” Should I stay or should I go…?” a popular song verse but hardly the sign of a strong leader…which Milley isn’t.
MILLIE VANILLI THE LIP SINKER SHOULD GO HOME BACK TO GLOBIA.
http://WWW.TICKEETOCKEE.COM
Comment used just to post a scam website.
They also missed one salient point. The President is a civilian and is Commander In Chief for a reason. Because the security of the country and foreign policy is to be carried out by the civilian sector and the military follows those orders. It is the JCS place to pick and choose.
He seems to be an overstuffed tub of goo with a mind like a sieve.
Milley should be court martialed post haste! He is working against our country by countering presidential orders. He is a disgrace to the uniform!
Milley is a danger. He has not stood up to Wokeness or any other dem. abominations
When you look at a high ranking military man (or woman) & you clearly see that he/she is a hundred pounds overweight & obviously out of shape, you know they are not much of a military person.
Milley is not only incapable of command, he leads from behind. He is a traitor as well as incompetent. I pray that whoever the Republican president is, the first thing he does is fire Milley, Garland and Wray. Then go after the subordinates.
This article doesn’t mention it but several have posted the full content of Milley’s supposed resignation letter. In it, Milley ranted that Trump was damaging “international order.” Milley revealed his loyalty is to international order, not to the USA. That is why he is proud of going behind Trump’s back and making calls directly to China.
It is an echo of Obama’s many statements that the US should give up “some of” our sovereignty to the UN to ensure world peace and stability.
I truly do not understand the problem—-DRAIN THE SWAMP—-I know how much of a problem this would be for each new administration BUT somewhere, somehow the USA needs to get back on line for what is best for America, for Americans and the USA!!! We have gone broke, spilt a lot of good American blood, killed a lot of good Americans trying to CURE THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS FOR THE UN–created and financed a monster Asian enemy we do not know what to do with, etc,etc, etc,— aside from all the homegrown problems we’ve put on ourselves—–our southern border, printing tons and tons of greenbacks, allowed a 3rd world, BS, federal election to stand with a president to take us down the toilet and allow a commie congress to help, again, etc,etc, etc. What could possibly go wrong——MAGA!!!!!