Loose Lips, Loose Cannon
September 30, 2021
General Mark Milley is highly respected, but this week, for the second time in months, he was hauled onto the carpet for conduct unbecoming an officer. He is the embodiment of a buttoned-down, tight-lipped Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but the spotlight clearly likes him, and he likes the spotlight. This is just as well because after 2018 he was forced to dance a professional version of the pas de deux with a crazy, attention-grabbing person in the White House.
Milley’s latest “lapse” caused some Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee to demand his resignation and to impugn his patriotism and character. But this is the guy who President Donald Trump praised when he nominated him to the highest position in the armed forces in 2018 as Chief and who stood with Trump in fatigues during his infamous Bible photo op in 2020 after peaceful demonstrators in Lafayette Square were gassed and removed. Now he’s being grilled and pilloried over revelations in a new book “Peril” by Bob Woodward that claimed Milley was so worried that Trump might spark war in fall 2020 that he secretly called his Chinese counterpart to reassure him that a conflict was not imminent. Two calls were placed – one before the election because of Trump’s bellicose, anti-China rhetoric – and a second after Trump’s attempted insurrection on January 6 to overturn the election result.
Milley confirmed that the calls were made but downplayed them, saying they were merely to allay rumors that had rattled the Chinese. He said the calls weren’t a secret but went through channels and were approved by his civilian superiors, namely the Defense Secretary and Secretary of State. He also said he didn’t think Trump was unhinged either, but clearly, he and his civilian masters felt the calls were warranted. That enraged Republicans like Senator Dan Sullivan who demanded his resignation for “giving a heads-up to the Chinese Communist Party” and Trump who said Milley committed “treason” if he talked to the Chinese military.
To those with a cortex, however, it was strangely comforting to know that trustworthy channels existed between the military chiefs of the world’s two most powerful militaries as means of de-escalating and de-politicizing situations. Milley said his remarks to his Beijing counterpart were carefully scripted and made out of courtesy just before the election in November because of intelligence reports that the Chinese were frightened by Trump’s China-bashing. He made the second call after the January 6 Capitol Building insurrection, to quell concerns that this was the beginning of a coup d’etat.
Milley told Senators that such communications were part of his job. “I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese and it is my directed responsibility to convey presidential orders and intent,” he testified. “My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: calm, steady, de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”
He also had to calm down the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi – second in line to the Presidency – who fretted about Trump’s unstable behavior and his access to nuclear weapons. Milley then told the committee, tellingly, that after his call with her he also summoned a meeting of senior military officials to review the procedures for launching deadly weapons in order to make sure that safeguards were in place.
“I sought to assure her [Pelosi] that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president,” Milley testified, adding that he wasn’t qualified to assess whether the President was psychologically unstable or not.
It was disturbing and left unanswered questions. Milley did not describe the intelligence that led him to make the phone calls. Was China preparing a pre-emptive attack? How credible was this intelligence? Without disclosure, which he declined to provide, it remains impossible to determine whether the four-star General over-reacted or over-reached by calling a foreign foe.
It also would have been helpful if he had been more forthcoming about the President’s state of mind, beyond saying that he wasn’t qualified to medically assess it. That’s a cop out and likely designed to camouflage the possibility that Trump was more unstable and vengeful and sociopathic than we’ll ever know. Also interesting is that Milley covered his butt by scripting the call, having witnesses on the line, and running all comments beforehand with Defense Secretary Mark Esper — who Trump fired days after the election because he resisted Trump’s request to use troops on peaceful American protesters.
And other questions arise. Why did Milley blab to Woodward about internal operations? Was he seeking recognition or did he consider it in the public interest to disclose? Further, if he was unconcerned about Trump’s mental condition, why did he call a meeting of senior officials to meticulously review the procedures to launch weapons of mass destruction?
Milley also landed in the hot seat in June 2020 after Trump’s march in Lafayette Square and photo in front of its church. The General immediately apologized for being there later, saying he should not have been there at all, and certainly not dressed in fatigues. But is this how he goes to work every day? And why did he lend his support after privately fending off attempts to militarize anti-protest efforts? In his apology, Milley said he regretted his presence there because it “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” But why he was there in the first place?
After that, the General and the President were at loggerheads and Trump went on the offensive. Commenting on a newspaper anecdote, the former President said “in another yet another desperate ploy to impress the radical left and keep his job, Milley made up a false story that he yelled at me in the Situation Room. This is totally fake news. If he had displayed such disrespect for his commander-in-chief I would have fired him immediately.”
This Washington circus aside, the good news is that the backchannel Milley used works. Recently, a Chinese military think tank called the Knowfar Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies, and founded by Chinese military officers, concluded that the risk of military conflict between China and the U.S. remains “relatively low” despite disagreements over the South China Sea and other issues. This is because interaction has been extended between the two militaries over the years and neither side aims to start an armed conflict but to deter or to establish tactical superiority.
Milley ended his Senate appearance with an oath: “My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle essential to this Republic and I am committed to ensuring the military stays clear of domestic politics.”
Ironically, his pledge is less reassuring than is the existence of a backchannel with China. While much fuss is made concerning the importance of civilian control over America’s military to protect democracy, recent events and Trumpian turmoil turn that belief completely on its head. The reality is that there are virtually no checks and balances to control a rogue, civilian American Commander-in-Chief which means that the only buttress between America’s democracy, and an elected despot, may one day have to be a politicized military.
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While it would be fairly easy to completely excoriate Gen Milley for some of his conduct being unbecoming, as republicans the other day would wish now, the truth is probably lying behind a bush somewhere. To even attempt to work with the last disaster of an executive, and I’m using that term in the lightest possible sense, took cajones. I would imagine that working for the last President would be like being a bead of water on the surface of a hot frying pan. That the world survived the feverish ravings of that outsized ego was a miracle and we aren’t out of the woods yet.
Under the other guy we found out for real that our Constitution as written, is a spiderweb shot full of holes by various decisions and actions by those who would be quite happy to see it completely KO’d in favor of a strongman, preferably someone similar to the former guy. Congress is a barrel full of rotten apples put there by an electorate possibly a little short on civics. We watched an attempted coup in January perpetrated by some of the worst elements ever to darken the doors of the White House and the Capitol. There are so many ugly elements at work in an environment that is already fraught with the peril of the pandemic and an economy that may seem strong but when looked at with a wider, worldwide lens, not so much.
In the greater scheme of things, General Milley and what he did or didn’t do, may or may not have done is small potatoes. History will write that footnote in the US History books. We just have to hope that we will still have a country that believes in textbooks that will still have our history with that footnote in them.
........who Trump fired days after the election because he resisted Trump’s request to use troops on peaceful American protesters"
The "peaceful American protesters" were hardly that. Did you not see federal buildings, police precincts and business premises burning? Portland was being over run by radical leftist and violent activists. Trump offered the Federal help quell the riots and mayhem which was rejected by the governor and mayor. Trump had every right to act and protect federal property and personnel.