A new book by Bob Woodward has Republicans and, more specifically, Donald Trump going bonkers. Here’s why their collective reactions are a bunch of baloney.
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PERIL, the new Bob Woodward book co-written with Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, details the deranged last days of the Donald Trump administration. In the book, Woodward and Costa outlined how Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley took it upon himself to secretly limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons against China as a last defiant act.
According to the book, Gen. Milley was deeply disturbed by the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill and ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’
“You never know what a president’s trigger point is,” Milley told his senior staff.
Next, the Bob Woodward book described how Gen. Milley called a secret emergency meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8th to review the process for launching nuclear weapons. The Joint Chiefs Chairman then delivered an unprecedented message to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center inside the Pentagon’s war room.
“DO NOT take orders from anyone unless I am involved,” Milley ordered.
“No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood.
“Got it?” Milley asked.
“Yes, sir,” they responded one by one.
‘Milley considered it an oath,’ the authors wrote.
The Bob Woodward book also mentioned a conversation Gen. Milley had with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who feared Trump was capable of anything in his last days after staging the Capitol Hill attack.
“What I’m saying to you is that if they couldn’t even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?” Speaker Pelosi told the Joint Chiefs chairman.
“You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time,” she continued.
“Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything,” Milley replied, according to the book.
Now, Donald Trump is absolutely livid over the Bob Woodward book and he and his conservative cronies are calling the actions of Gen. Milley “treason” and demanding his removal from military service.
“If the story of “Dumbass” General Mark Milley, the same failed leader who engineered the worst withdrawal from a country, Afghanistan, in US history, leaving behind many dead and wounded soldiers, many American citizens, and $85 Billion worth of the newest and most sophisticated Military equipment in the world, and our Country’s reputation, is true, then I assume he would be tried for TREASON in that he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the President’s back and telling China that he would be giving them notification “of an attack.” Can’t do that!” Donald Trump barked in a statement.
Fox News host Sean Hannity also chimed in.
“If this is true, General Milley would be a traitor to this country and should be tried for treason immediately. If true, he should be fired and tried for treason immediately,” Hannity exclaimed Tuesday night next to an on-air graphic that read “Benedict Milley.”
HOGWASH! Or, in the words of President Biden, this is all “MALARKEY!”
According to various military experts, Gen. Milley’s actions were nowhere near treasonous. In fact, several confirmed it is the responsibility of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to use his relationship with his counterparts from other countries to avoid war and, more specifically, a nuclear strike at all cost.
“All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated, and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency,” Col. Dave Butler said. “General Milley continues to act and advise within his authority in the lawful tradition of civilian control of the military and his oath to the Constitution.”
Col. Butler added that Gen. Milley’s calls to Chinese officials and others were in line with his responsibility to “maintain strategic stability.”
The colonel is correct.
Gen. Milley did not defy or refuse to carry out a direct order from the commander in chief. Nor did he undermine US policy or a planned strategic military strike against another nation. Instead, he communicated with his counterpart in China that the United States was not planning to launch a nuclear strike against the Asian nation — a communication that happens frequently between military officers of all nations.
However, Donald Trump — and now, his Republican flunkies — are attempting to make a mountain out of a molehill. Or, to put it bluntly, Trump is barking about Gen. Milley’s actions because he believes the general made him look stupid and not in control. And now, in true Trump fashion, he simply wants to save face.
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“No, no, no! You don’t understand, Mike. You can do this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” – Donald Trump
CNN: After the call, Milley decided he had to act. He told his top service chiefs to watch everything “all the time.” He called the director of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, and told him, “Needles up … keep watching, scan.” And he told then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, “Aggressively watch everything, 360.” The authors write, ‘Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.’ Woodward and Costa also write that ‘some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,’ but he believed his actions were ‘a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons.’ Milley’s fear that Trump could do something unpredictable came from experience. Right after Trump lost the… Read more »