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General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, allegedly had secret communications with China behind Donald Trump‘s back when he was president. A situation for which he is now labeled a “traitor” and for which the Republican Party is demanding his resignation.
Milley, the main US military chief, would have ordered his collaborators not to act immediately in case Trump took any step to use the nuclear arsenal and, in addition, he would have called a Chinese general to reassure Beijing about the decisions that the Republican president could take.
As recounted by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, in their book entitled “Danger“, Milley was worried about Trump’s “state of mind,” an argument, which, without solidity could bring him serious consequences.
While the White House affirms that President Joe Biden “has great confidence in [General Milley’s] leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our constitution,” Republicans demand the departure of the military high command for having allegedly betrayed Trump during his presidency.
For his part former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who led the Pentagon from the 2020 post-election period through Inauguration Day, said he “did not and would never authorize” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have “secret” calls with his Chinese counterpart. He further called the allegations a “shameful and unprecedented act of insubordination.”
In a statement to Fox News, Miller said the U.S. military, since its beginning, has “operated under the inviolable principle of civilian control of the Armed Forces.”
“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer whose sole role is providing military-specific advice to the president, and by law is prohibited from exercising executive authority to command forces,” Miller said.
Likewise, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Biden demanding Milley’s immediate dismissal.
” I write with grave concern regarding recent reporting that General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces and contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” Rubio wrote.
“These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgement, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately,” he sentenced.
Rubio assured that if the journalists’ claims are confirmed, what Milley did “was not an act of heroism but of treason that posed a grave risk to our security and our constitutional order.”
Rubio’s statements are joined by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who said that if confirmed, if Milley does not resign “he should be fired.”
Jack Posobiec, senior editor of Human Events, said that “Milley’s insane and reckless actions could have triggered a first strike by China on American cities.”
The claims against Milley appear in the book “Danger,” co-written by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who alleged that the general made two secret phone calls, both to his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. The book claims the phone calls took place before the 2020 presidential election, on Oct. 30, 2020, and then two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, on Jan. 8, 2021.
“If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time”: Mark Milley
“In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike,” reads a Washington Post (WaPo) report.
According to what is described in the WaPo, Milley’s calls to the Chinese general were “prompted” because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not trust either the ability or the state of mind of former President Donald Trump, so he decided to act behind the former president’s back.
In that first call, Milley said, “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, (…) We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”
He then commented to General Li that “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” the media outlet said.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo