More than two dozen GOP congressmen have demanded that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin open a special investigation into General Mark Milley’s secret phone calls with his Communist Chinese counterpart.
The 27 congressmen, led by Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a retired Army general, accused Milley of treason in a letter to Austin dated September 16. Milley is chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff,
During the phone call, as The New American reported earlier this week, Milley promised General Li Zuocheng advance warning of any attack should the nations go to war. The revelation appears in a new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post.
The Calls
Milley rang up the Red Chinese general because of what he perceived to be President Trump’s irrational tilt toward war with the nation. That claim, of course, makes it appear as Milley did the right thing.
“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,” the Washington Post reported about the book.
The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.
Woodward and Costa provide two damning quotes from Milley.
- “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.”
- “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.”
Milley also discussed seizing control of the nation’s nuclear weapons with leftist House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The hate-Trump leftist called Milley after the mostly peaceful protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6 to say Trump was “crazy.” Milley agreed.
Milley also reminded his underlings that he would have to sign off on any nuclear attack.
President Trump called the Milley’s conversations treason, and said he had no intention of attacking China.
The GOP Letter
After citing the two calls, the letter from the GOP congressmen accuses Milley of treason.
“Milley called the Indo-Pacific Commander and instructed him to call off all military exercises in the South China Sea, following up by assembling senior officers and mandating that any order to launch a nuclear weapon must include GEN Milley’s involvement,” the congressmen wrote. He also established a “parallel chain of command” with regard to launching nuclear weapons:
To conspire with a communist, malfeasant, hostile, and genocidal government regarding our intentions — or lack thereof — with utter disregard to the implications of said “promise” on our national security or our Service Members, is nothing short of craven (at best) and treasonous.
Mainstream media reports this story as if America were rendered a great service by Gen. Milley, as if he simply were trying to ward off the supposedly unpredictable behavior of the elected President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. To be clear, however, if Mr. Woodward’s account is true, Gen. Milley’s pledge to China is nothing less than outright treason.
Later on 8 January 2021, Speaker Pelosi reportedly contacted Gen. Milley, with the latter allegedly pledging that “the nuclear triggers are secure and we’re not going to do — we’re not going to allow anything crazy, illegal, immoral, or unethical to happen.”
The conversation with Pelosi, the congressmen wrote, attempted to make national security a partisan issue.
The congressmen thus demanded a formal AR 15-6 investigation of the rogue general, and the results by October 6, and want his security clearance suspended.
Most AR 15-6 probes are informal and deal with minor incidents. One officer handles the probe. A formal investigation deals with serious matters and involves hearings before a panel of officers.
Hat tip: The Daily Caller
