Should Biden’s Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff be Court Martialed?

It’s amazing people are not totally freaking out over this….Mark Milley secretly conspired with the Chinese military to end civilian control of our military. Milley secretly informed China that he would warn them in advance of any attack by U.S. military forces. Pentagon sources have admitted that Milley made the calls to the Chinese.  But they insist that the general assured China that there would be no surprise attacks. It is a distinction with very little difference.   

Retired lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman tweeted, “If this is true General Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke chain of command, violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that. Do the right thing in the right way.”

That is huge, as he also bypassed the Secretary of Defense…worse, the CIA and NSA were made aware (Haspel was worried Trump would lead a right wing Coup), and Milley met with Schumer and Pelosi to conspire against a US President. Where it gets really creepy, Milley also told Pelosi, and CIA’s Haspel that the United States military might be required to use physical force against the president (which really means use force against US Citizens). “We’re the guys with guns”. Think about this….Milley usurped the authority of the president (elected civilian leader of the United States), sought to defy any orders he did not like, and inserted himself into a chain of command in order to assume power over the nation’s military operations and nuclear codes. Treason, yes. Other crimes, yes. Yet guys like Barry McCaffrey are lauding him as a hero that saved the Republic, when in reality he killed it.

Given the gravity of these accusations and the corresponding national security threat they posed, Milley should be immediately suspended from all military duty —including his position as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff— pending a thorough investigation.  If there exists credible evidence to support the claims against him, he must face a court-martial by military tribunal to answer for his perfidy.   

Typically, demented President Biden has said that he has complete confidence in Milley. This is how corrupt this administration really is.

Two days after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Milley spoke by telephone with House Speaker Pelosi.  In a transcript of the call obtained by the authors, Pelosi demanded that the general wrest control of the nuclear codes from Trump by instituting precautions and otherwise prevent him from taking any adverse military action.  Milley offered his resolute assurances to the speaker.  

Shortly thereafter, Milley convened a covert meeting with senior Pentagon officials, including the chain of command for the nation’s nuclear arsenal.  Asserting unfettered power that he did not have, the general instructed them that no one was to act on any orders for military strikes —even from President Trump— unless he, Milley, was personally involved and approved.  He insisted that everyone in the room verbally commit to effectively place him in charge.   

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Milley serves only as an adviser to the president.  That is all.  His position is not within the chain of command overseeing the codes that control U.S. nuclear weapons.  Indeed, by law he is prohibited by from having any operational command authority over America’s armed forces.  As such, his actions as described in the book were both treacherous and lawless.      

Under Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a person is guilty of sedition if he acts “with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority.”  Usurping the power of the president as commander-in-chief and undermining his constitutional authority are grounds for a court-martial.  Actively subverting or defying the elected, civilian control of the military is nothing more than a hijacking of our government by an advisor who thinks he can do so because he happens to have four stars resting on his shoulders.  

After ordering Pentagon officials to bypass President Trump and undertake no military incursions without first seeking his assent, Milley telephoned his counterpart in China.  “Peril” describes how he reassured Gen Li Zuocheng that the U.S. would not initiate any type of attack amid American military exercises in the South China Sea.  

This was preceded by a call that Milley made to Li on October 30, 2020, four days before the presidential election.  During that conversation, Woodward and Costa allege that Milley promised he would warn the Chinese Communist Party in advance if the president were to launch an attack against the country.  

“We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you,” said Milley, according to a book excerpt.  He added, “General Li, you and I have known each other for 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.”

Bear in mind that there is no evidence that Trump ever contemplated such an attack, and he has said as much.  Regardless, tipping off an enemy about a planned strike would not only allow opposing forces to prepare a potent defense but it would also enable them to mount a devastating preemptive attack against the U.S.

President Trump, whether you like it or not, is arguably the least “war/military conflict-oriented” chief executive/commander-in-chief in our history. Zero conflicts initiated or existing conflicts expanded during his administration, pretty significant (ignored by the left and the press, but I repeat myself) peace moves with the Abraham Accords, traveling to meet with North Korea, trade pacts worked on or signed around the world, NATO pushed to better carry their own weight of the collective defense, authorizing the ending of the terrorist leaders al Baghdadi and Solemani (remember the Democratic POTUS debate where every single one of those poltroons said they WOULDN’T have pulled the trigger on one of the most murderous and powerful terrorists in the world?). If Milley honestly felt the President was “crazy” and “unstable” when, for the previous 4 years there was not an inkling, not a scintilla of global threat in his foreign policy stance, if he was really concerned about this past president losing it and going rogue, he doesn’t have any business leading anything.

Under Article 103b of the UCMJ, a person is guilty of aiding the enemy by providing intelligence or military information to the enemy without authority.  Milley’s communications with Li were allegedly made in secret and without President Trump’s knowledge or consent.  Conveying highly privileged military information, vital intelligence, or war plans to a foreign adversary might also constitute the crime of espionage under Article 103a of the UCMJ.  This point was made by Sen. Marco Rubio in a letter to President Biden in which he demanded that Milley be fired.  “I do not need to tell you the dangers posed by senior military officers leaking classified information on U.S. military operations,” he wrote.

No amount of rationalization can possibly justify an advisory general’s seizure of the reins of power from an elected president so that he could wield it himself as he saw fit.  It doesn’t matter whether he had convinced himself that he was acting in the best interest of the American people.  It was not his judgment to make.  In a word, it’s irrelevant.   

The book portrays Milley as concerned, if not paranoid, that Trump would engage in armed hostilities and somehow attempt a coup while contesting the election results.  The general’s dishonorable solution was to mount a coup of his own against the president.  

As the authors of “Peril” put it, “Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.”  That is not how democracy works in our constitutional republic.    

Under our system of military justice, Milley must be held accountable.  If the evidence merits a court-martial, he should be tried.  If crimes were committed, he will be convicted and sentenced.

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Wayne Creed

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