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Milley’s Betrayal Will End in Fire
Saw this article today on MSN: “U.S. top general secretly called China over fears Trump could spark war – report“
According to the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, General Milley twice called his counterpart in the PLA to let him know that the US was not going to launch a war against China and, if we were, he would call him and let him know. He called him twice. Once before the election, and again on January 8 after this exchange with Speaker Pelosi:
“He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy,” Pelosi told Milley in the call, according to the report.
According to the cited call transcript, the general replied, “I agree with you on everything.”
To say that I find this troubling is an understatement. I am OK with there being a call to lower tensions. That seems to be appropriate (to an extent), but promising to call the leader of the PLA and let them know that an attack was imminent seems to be very, very wrong. I’m hesitant to use the “T” word to describe such an action, but it sure seems like we are getting close to that level of behavior.
I was chatting with a friend and mentioned to them that there was a cabal of people who went to great lengths to rig the election as reported by that right-wing agitprop rag Time Magazine. They felt their actions were completely normal and OK. Of course, they also think that Trump is the worst President ever. I wonder if we can ever be a whole country again? I think we cannot and the carnage that will result from that will be intense.
As for General Milley…I am not sure what punishment is appropriate, but that he is still in uniform at this point is a problem. That of those that voted on the poll at the end of the article 46% (the plurality) strongly supported his actions is another data point that we are no longer a single country with common goals, but rather two increasingly disparate people intermixed with each other who cannot talk about our problems much less come to any sort of resolution. Frankly, I am not even sure how I would feel about someone who strongly supported Gen Milley’s actions. I took a survey for some company recently and one set of questions asked if I think that people who were Republicans, or Democrats, or Socialists, or various other ideologies/parties could be good people. I answered in the affirmative and I still believe that. I wonder how many of my fellow R> members feel that way? I wonder how much longer I will feel that way? That makes me quite sad.
What is the end result…a cleansing fire, but one that leaves the US a tattered husk and leaves someone like the Chinese ruling the world. To me, that is a bad outcome. Alas, I think it is the inevitable one.
Published in Politics
Your fevered hallucinations are not Trump’s fault.
You may need to get YOUR head shrunk for this one.
Edit: that was supposed to be the Star Wars comment.
It doesn’t seem like anyone is.
So why did you state as a fact that a commander can only be relieved of command in limited circumstances?
(I’ll add that I accompanied the Flight Chief to the gate in case there was resistance. So it’s not something I saw on TV or in a movie.)
Heh. And you thought they were your friends before this?
You know we fought a revolution so that we wouldn’t be subordinate to George III or his heirs. Why would you pick him as a model to follow? I really struggle to understand where you get these ideas.
According to Mark Levin and a few other lawyers, the CJCS has only one responsibility and that is to provide advice to the President. He has no executive authority.
That’s correct, although Colin Powell did a great job claiming credit for winning the Gulf War.
Thanks. (Thinks to self: I’ve got to work on my sarcasm.)
Maybe I should work on my reading comprehension?
Slight correction. Jack Ryan is acclaimed Vice-President by the President and accepted by the Joint Session of Congress. As Ryan is about to move to the Capital via tunnels the pilot crashes the plane into the Capital building killing the President, almost every member of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet. Ryan is sworn in as President shortly afterwards.
Sounds a bit like what happened to Londo Mollari in becoming Emperor.
You are absolutely correct. I knew that. I was typing far too quickly, and did not type in the word “Vice.” Thanks for the correction,
Its not a big deal, but I do love me some vintage Jack Ryan.
Uh . . . I don’t recall that everybody in line to the throne was wiped out leaving only Londo. I recall that Cartagia was taken out by a well-placed stiletto, and Londo just happened to be next.
Your sci-fi references don’t always land, man!
That says more about your thought process then about Trumps.
The same President who pissed off John Bolton because he would not authorize a drone strike that would kill 150 people was going to start a war, more to the point launch a nuke?
That does not even make any sense. Trump was pissed about the election. How do you get from that internal concern to launching nukes?
I agree the Constitution is not a suicide pack. We have created some checks, the Military should only follow “lawful” orders. The checks come into play when Trump makes some “order”. So he declares martial law, the Generals might tell him to pound sand. It has to be reactionary. A General can not take actions because it is possible the President could do something stupid.
What is the limiting principle here, any President is capable of doing something stupid. Should we just do away with the office and let the Generals run the country?
Londo as Prime Minister removed (although perhaps not killed) everyone that had been around Cartagia in the Royal Court, those who had been “influenced by the Shadows,” in order to hopefully convince the Vorlons not to destroy Centauri Prime. At least some of those people would normally have been considered successors to Cartagia, as with Londo himself having been part of the Royal Court almost since childhood.
It seemed close enough under the circumstances.
Milley: Calls to China were ‘perfectly’ within scope of job (msn.com)
I did re-watch the series recently, and I just don’t remember him removing everyone. Only Cartagia.
There’s another relevant bit but I couldn’t find a clip.
I stopped reading Tom Clancy, when he stopped writing the books under his name. But I hung in there for his first 10 books or so.
The Babylon Bee – excerpts from Mark Milley’s The Art of War: