KT McFarland raises important questions about explosive Milley accusations
Former Trump deputy national security adviser weighs in on General Milley's alleged collaborations with China on 'The Story'
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be fired over the Afghanistan debacle. If the allegations in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book "Peril" are true, General Milley should also face court-martial.
At a minimum there needs to be two separate investigations into his conduct:
The sensational story of the week is that Milley went rogue earlier this year while President Trump was nearing the end of his term. Here’s what is being alleged by Woodward and Costa:
- He conspired with Speaker Pelosi to take away the president’s nuclear codes
- He spoke to China’s top general and promised a heads of if President Trump took military action against China
- He did all of these on his own, single-handedly, without the knowledge or consent of his bosses at the Pentagon or White House.
MILLEY SECRETLY CALLED CHINESE OFFICIALS OUT OF FEAR TRUMP WOULD 'ATTACK' IN FINAL DAYS, BOOK CLAIMS
His alleged rationale was that he worried about Trump’s sanity. So Milley went rogue because he thought Trump might go rogue.
If the allegations are true, Milley was willing to subvert a fundamental tenet of our Constitution, the crown jewel of the principle of American self-governance, because in his opinion, "Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic and screaming at officials…."
In his first public statements since the bombshell allegations in the Woodward/Costa book, Milley said Friday, as reported by FoxNews.com "that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were "perfectly within the duties and responsibilities" of his job. He told the Associated Press and another reporter traveling with him to Europe that the calls he made were "routine" and done "to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability."
MILLEY DEFENDS CHINA CALLS AS 'PERFECTLY' WITHIN SCOPE OF JOB
But consider this: Perhaps Milley had another motive as well -- keeping his job.
Look at the timeline. Milley talked to Woodward after the election.
Milley was a Trump appointee, he was in the infamous photo walking with Trump across Lafayette Square during the George Floyd riots.
Biden’s team wanted to clean house of all Trump appointees when they entered the White House. What better way for Milley to show that he wasn’t "Trump’s man" and ingratiate himself with the new team?
We should not let this week’s blockbuster headlines paper over the deeper issue of who is responsible for the Afghanistan debacle.
MILEY SUPPORTERS WOULD BE OUTRAGED IF HE HAD GONE BEHIND BIDEN'S BACK: ‘THE FIVE’
The well-respected commander on the ground in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin Miller, recommended we keep Bagram Airbase and evacuate American citizens, Green Card holders, and Afghan allies before our combat forces. They also predicted a quick collapse if we withdrew to zero U.S. forces precipitously and unconditionally.
Biden didn’t heed their warnings, although he insists that he followed the recommendations of "all his generals."
The president’s advisers still maintain that we left no Americans behind. They are doubling down on their claims, starting with Biden, that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was an ‘extraordinary success’ and that any problems they encountered were all Donald Trump’s fault.
President Biden, his cabinet and his generals have all circled the wagons, so no one is being held responsible for the greatest military and diplomatic blunder in modern American history.
POMPEO ON GEN. MILLEY'S CALLS TO CHINA: NARRATIVE ABOUT TRUMP'S FINAL WEEKS 'FUNDAMENTALLY FALSE'
Gen. Milley will finally be forced to answer for his actions when he appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify under oath later this month.
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Senators from both parties should grill him on his actions at the end of the Trump administration and his role in the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal. Both will have repercussions on American domestic and foreign policy for years.
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The allegations in the Woodward/Costa book beg this question: Is it now OK for an unelected senior official, a military officer, on his own recognizance, to decide whether or not the president is up to the job, and then take preemptive action, again on his own recognizance, to thwart him?
If true, that is getting dangerously close to a military coup.
The Afghanistan fiasco has forced our allies to doubt us and offered our enemies an opportunity to exploit us. As a result, President Biden and his team will now face a series of challenges to American power.
The Great Reckoning has already begun. North Korea is firing missiles again. China is sending warships across the Pacific and right up to the territorial waters of Hawaii.
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China has warned the Pacific nations that America is not an ally to be trusted, and it has underscored the point with military exercises demonstrating their ability to invade Taiwan.
Perhaps Gen. Milley is the villain in both these cases. Perhaps he’s merely a pawn.
Either way the American people need answers. Pronto.
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