Gen. Mark Milley might have committed treason when he phoned China's People's Liberal Army General Li Zuocheng that he would give him a heads up if the US ever attacked the country. Milley was apparently so concerned that we would go to war with China in the waning days of the Trump administration. Katie wrote about it today. The Washington Post had the scoop:
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.”
I mean, this is a big deal. How do we know? Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was at the center of the first Trump impeachment effort, is calling on Milley to go.
If this is true GEN Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that. #dotherightthingintherightway https://t.co/izsMMCFPrz
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) September 14, 2021
“If this is true Gen. Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke the Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It’s an extremely dangerous precedent. You can’t simply walk away from that,” he tweeted.
You just cannot make this stuff up. I thought things were not normal under Trump. That our institutions were at risk because of him. It turns out there were folks chipping away at the integrity of our institutions, but it wasn’t Trump.