We Know How The Mainstream Media Will Spin This

On Wednesday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about one of the first things the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has done.

The article reports:

Disgrace General Mark “White Rage” Milley finally got his long-awaited comeuppance.

Fox News exclusively reported Tuesday evening that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will “immediately” pull retired Gen. Mark Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance.

But the news gets even better: Hegseth will order the new acting Inspector General to conduct a review to ascertain whether evidence exists for Milley to lose a star in retirement due to his deceitful actions “undermining the chain of command” during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Fox News also reports that a second portrait of Milley will be removed inside the Pentagon. This one is from the Army’s Marshall Corridor on the third floor, honoring his service as chief of staff.

As TGP readers know, Milley did several things that arguably meet the definition of treason. First, Milley made two calls to an official in China’s People’s Liberation Army just months before Trump left office, assuring our most formidable adversary that he would give advance warning if the US were ever going to attack the communist nation.

Milley also made headlines for surrendering Afghanistan and arming the Taliban with $85 billion in US military equipment. Before fleeing Afghanistan in a rush in the fall of 2021, Joe Biden armed the Taliban terrorist organization with approximately $80 billion in US weapons.

The White House and Pentagon have never admitted to how many billion dollars worth of weapons they left behind for the Islamist group.

This will probably be reported by the mainstream media as a political move. It is not. Subverting the chain of command in the U.S. military is a serious offense. Calling someone in a country that has an adversarial relationship with America to tell them that you would give them advance warning of any hostilities is treason. President Biden preemptively pardoned the General from any past and future offenses, but I am not sure if that covers the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If it doesn’t, this may not be the end of this story. There is also the matter of the newly appointed Inspector General. As I said, the mainstream media will label this as political, but if America wants a strong military, everyone must be required to follow the same rules.

The Price Of Ignoring The Law

We have watched in recent years as criminals who committed serious crimes were released from jail without bail. We have seen the constitutional rights of the January 6th defendants ignored. We have seen justice administered unevenly for a number of years now, so it should be no surprise that on his way out the door, President Biden thumbed his nose at our justice system.

On January 20th, CBN News reported the following:

During his final hours in office, and with President-elect Donald Trump set to be inaugurated as his successor today, President Biden has issued preemptive pardons for some controversial figures who have dominated headlines in recent years.

Though none of them have been convicted of crimes, Biden announced he’s pardoning Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and everyone involved in the January 6 congressional investigation, which would include outspoken Trump critics like ousted Rep. Liz Cheney.

Biden says he took the extraordinary step to prevent the Trump administration from prosecuting those people because he’s concerned they’ll be targeted with “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”

To refresh your memory, the people involved in the January 6 congressional investigation destroyed evidence and withheld evidence from their fellow Congressmen and from the American public. There is nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting them for their crimes.

General Milley has gone on the record as having called a secret meeting at the Pentagon during which he instructed senior military officials not to take orders from their Trump unless he (Milley) approved them. He also reportedly reassured the Chinese that he would tip off Beijing in case of an impending attack by President Trump (article here). Under normal circumstances, that behavior would result in a court martial at least. There would be nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting the general for those actions.

The preemptive pardons may not stand up to court challenges. Whether they stand up or not, they provide a preview of the talking points of the political left. Any action against the crimes of people who were allies of President Biden during his administration will be characterized as political. Any actual crimes will be ignored and not mentioned.  It is up to Americans whether or not they want to see the laws of America and the Constitution upheld. All of us need to make noise when those laws are ignored.

Before You Take His Statements Too Seriously, Look At His Record

Somehow a lot of the rules in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) were ignored when President Trump was in office. One of the people who broke a lot of those rules but was never held accountable was the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about some of his past actions and some of his recent statements.

The article reports:

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, recently called Donald Trump a “fascist to the core” and “a wannabe dictator.” That such a senior military leader would feel comfortable saying this about his former boss is remarkable given that similar statements by officers have, in the past, resulted in severe punishment. The U.S. Constitution makes the president—the only democratically elected leader in the chain of command—commander in chief. Military leaders serving under the president owe him both deference and respect, regardless of whether their policy preferences differ.  

General Milley is challenging this foundational principle of American government. Although General Milley’s recent statements are not subject to Article 88 because President Trump was no longer in office at the time the general made them, his previous attempts to undermine Trump’s authority could be. Indeed, General Milley has recognized as much, expressing concern that he may yet face court-martial for his conduct during the Trump administration. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has revealed that General Milley discussed with her ways in which the military could ignore a hypothetical order from President Trump to deploy nuclear weapons, and that he agreed with the speaker’s suggestion that President Trump was “crazy.”

The article notes what I consider the most egregious act of General Milley:

Others have alleged that General Milley worked behind the scenes to frustrate the Trump administration’s plan to pull troops out of Afghanistan, ultimately succeeding in delaying withdrawal until President Biden was in office. Most egregiously, a 2021 book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa details how General Milley—without knowledge or authorization from the president—offered to warn a senior Chinese military official “ahead of time” in the event that President Trump ordered an attack against the communist state. This latter conduct, if true, goes beyond even insubordination—it borders on outright treason, which can be prosecuted through court-martial or by the Department of Justice under Title 18, Section 2381 of the U.S. Code.

General Milley is a disgrace to the uniform.

Posted on Twitter by Victor Davis Hanson:

Victor Davis Hanson
@VDHanson
As Gen. Milley leaves office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on his last day  he goes out ranting about his loyalty to the Constitution and not  to a “dictator,”—blasting Trump without mentioning Trump, and thus trumping as it were Trump’s own excesses with those of his own. So transits the most politicalized and weaponized 4-star CJS since the office was created. Would that instead Milley had at least explained the 2021 historically disastrous flight from Kabul and defeat in Afghanistan, or the radical implementation of woke agendas into the Pentagon retention and promotion policies, or why he felt the illustrious and renown Professor Kendi, of current Boston University “Center for Antiracist Research” infamy, should be required reading for the U.S. military at time when its recruitment is descending into historical lows and its deterrent reputation is seriously questioned. So what about Milley’s own “constitutional” legacy? Is it that an officer who deems his civilian President and Commander in Chief dangerous—as diagnosed by 4-star psychiatrist, state department diplomat, and now theater commander Milley—has a right to commandeer the chain of command, usurp powers that are expressly by law denied to him, and then take it on himself in a time of Chinese-American tensions to freelance, by contacting his communist counterpart to warn him about his own president’s diagnosed volatility,  and to reassure the hardened Stalinist that Dr/Gen. Milley will inform him first of any precipitate action from the White House. Dictatorial much? Americans might ask the departing Milley, two questions, 1) if Trump is reelected in 2024, will a retired General Milley, as did his retired 4-star colleagues in 2020, violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and repeat his current charges against a second-term President Trump—matching the previous invective of his colleagues’ accusations of “liar”  or “Mussolini”?. And 2) what would Milley have done had a subordinate like himself, say a 3-star general, decided that Gen. Mark Milley’s Beijing gambit and his arrogation of command powers that were not legally his own, posed a grave threat to the republic? And thus would such a 3-star call up theater commanders to warn them to resist Milley’s reckless orders and to report to him first, followed by his  phone call to the top Chinese PLA general to assure them that if Milley somehow gave an order deemed by the 3-star to be dangerously provocative, then he would not only not obey it but rather first warn the Chinese military of Milley’s unstable state of mind. Is that the kind of military Milley wishes to leave as his legacy, as he departs barking accusations at the moon?

Another Voice In The Current Scandal

The Red State Observer reported yesterday that former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who was in charge of the Pentagon during the time General Milley made his calls to Chine, has stated that he never authorized those calls.

The article reports:

In a statement to Fox News, Miller said that the United States Armed Forces, from its inception, has “operated under the inviolable principle of civilian control of the military.”

“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. “The chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense, not through the Chairman.”

…The book (“Peril,” co-written by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa) claims Milley contacted Li after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea. The authors of the book also claim Milley contacted Li a second time to reassure him that the U. S. would not make any type of advances or attack China in any form, as Milley promised, “We are 100% steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

But Fox News spoke with multiple individuals who were in the room during the two phone calls Milley had with Li. The calls, in October, were coordinated with then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s office.

“They were not secret,” a U. S. official told Fox News about the calls, which took place over video teleconference.

The article continues:

Fox News has learned there were about 15 people present for the calls. Sources told Fox News that there were multiple notetakers present, and said the calls were both conducted with full knowledge of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and then-acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller – something Miller denied.

“If the reporting in Woodward’s book is accurate, it represents a disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination by the Nation’s top military officer,” Miller said, adding that if the story of Milley’s “histrionic outbursts and unsanctioned, anti-Constitutional involvement in foreign policy prove true, he must resign immediately or be fired by the Secretary of Defense to guarantee the sanctity of the officer corps.”

“Pursuit of partisan politics and individual self-interests are a violation of an officer’s sacred duty and have no place in the United States military,” Miller said, adding that “a lesser ranking officer accused of such behavior would immediately be relieved of duty pending a thorough and independent investigation.”

“As secretary of defense, I did not and would not ever authorize such conduct,” Miller said.

I should note here that sources in the Defense Department (and our military) are not always reliable.

The article notes:

And former chief of staff for the Department of Defense Kash Patel told Fox News that “the law governing the Joint Chiefs of Staff specifically forbids the chairman from exercising any operational command authority.”

“Congress put this in the statute because the U. S. military is to be led by a civilian, the commander-in-chief,” Patel continued. “Furthermore, by law, the national command authority goes from the president to the secretary of Defense to include anything relating troop deployments, operations in theaters of war, and nuclear command.”

Patel added that if the calls with China are true, Milley “has violated the law regarding operational authority.”

Stay tuned.

Is The Uniform Code of Military Justice Still In Effect?

The media is abuzz with stories about Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley and his conversations with the Chinese Communists.There are a few things that need to be emphasized about this story. In America our military is led by a civilian–the President. Our military is answerable to the President as the President is the Commander-in-Chief. In our military there is a chain of command that all members of the military are supposed to honor. In his conversations with the Chinese Communists, General Milley went outside his chain of command. That is the problem.

I have five questions about the uproar over General Milley:

1. Is it true?

2. If it is true, why did Bob Woodward not disclose it before now?

3. Is this a set up to make General Milley the fall guy for the Afghanistan debacle?

4. Does the military still honor the Uniform Code of Military Justice?

5. Is this dust-up being put out to distract us from something else?

Yesterday Townhall posted an article about what General Milley has done.

The article reports:

New reporting from The Washington Post, detailing the contents of a new book, shows General Mark Milley reassured China’s People’s Liberal Army General Li Zuocheng that he would give the communist country a heads up if President Donald Trump launched an attack in the final months of his presidency. He did so in a series of reported phone calls and reassured Li he would stand between Trump and an attack on Chinese assets. 

What would have been the reaction if someone in the Roosevelt administration had told the Germans he would warn them before the allies invaded France? On the surface, this looks an awful lot like treason.

The article quotes The Washington Post:

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, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.

One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021. 

“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.”

Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied.

Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”

The last paragraph is troubling. That’s not officially a coup, but it sure sounds like one. General Milley was putting himself in a position where the senior officers needed his approval to follow the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. That is not the way it is supposed to work. This is nuts.