Post by prozyan on Sept 15, 2021 20:56:33 GMT -5
I'm a bit surprised this hasn't been brought up yet. I think its ripe for discussion. Just a quick summary:
Apparently in the waning days of Trump's Presidency, Joint Chief of Staff General Milley became concerned that China might pre-emptively strike the US because of rising tensions in the South China Sea over military exercises, Trump's increased belligerent rhetoric toward China regarding COVID and other things, and the apparent erosion of government stability in the US post-election. His reasoning was China was becoming increasingly concerned that the US would launch some sort of pre-emptive attack. To remedy this situation, General Milley reached out to his Chinese counterpart twice, once in October and once again in January to assure the Chinese the US has no intention to attack China and the US government was stable. There are also reports General Miley gave an assurance that he would "let China know" if the US intended to strike China, but I haven't been able to substantiate these claims. Here are a couple of articles for reference:
www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/milley-held-secret-calls-with-china-others-as-trump-pushed-election-lies.html
www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037454733/milley-defends-call-to-chinese-general-about-trump
Republicans, of course, have their hair on fire over this with calls of treason echoing loudly.
My opinion on the matter is, with the information available that can be verified, that General Milley walked a damn fine line, but didn't quite cross it. His reported review of nuclear launch protocols is absolutely within his rights and authority, and Trump was acting rather erratically in the closing days of his Presidency.
Far more concerning are the calls to China. If what has been reported is true, that General Milley simply gave reassurances the US has no intentions to attack and the US government was stable, I can live with that. I think the guy should resign, because that is a form of shadow diplomacy in my view (very much akin to what Flynn got hammered for), but I'm not convinced it rises to the level of treason.
However, if General Milley did go further, and make assurances that he would "let China know" if the US intentions changed and an attack was planned, I see no way around that being treason.
At the very least there should be public hearings in Congress over this matter, but I doubt we'll see that because orange man bad.
Apparently in the waning days of Trump's Presidency, Joint Chief of Staff General Milley became concerned that China might pre-emptively strike the US because of rising tensions in the South China Sea over military exercises, Trump's increased belligerent rhetoric toward China regarding COVID and other things, and the apparent erosion of government stability in the US post-election. His reasoning was China was becoming increasingly concerned that the US would launch some sort of pre-emptive attack. To remedy this situation, General Milley reached out to his Chinese counterpart twice, once in October and once again in January to assure the Chinese the US has no intention to attack China and the US government was stable. There are also reports General Miley gave an assurance that he would "let China know" if the US intended to strike China, but I haven't been able to substantiate these claims. Here are a couple of articles for reference:
www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/milley-held-secret-calls-with-china-others-as-trump-pushed-election-lies.html
www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037454733/milley-defends-call-to-chinese-general-about-trump
Republicans, of course, have their hair on fire over this with calls of treason echoing loudly.
My opinion on the matter is, with the information available that can be verified, that General Milley walked a damn fine line, but didn't quite cross it. His reported review of nuclear launch protocols is absolutely within his rights and authority, and Trump was acting rather erratically in the closing days of his Presidency.
Far more concerning are the calls to China. If what has been reported is true, that General Milley simply gave reassurances the US has no intentions to attack and the US government was stable, I can live with that. I think the guy should resign, because that is a form of shadow diplomacy in my view (very much akin to what Flynn got hammered for), but I'm not convinced it rises to the level of treason.
However, if General Milley did go further, and make assurances that he would "let China know" if the US intentions changed and an attack was planned, I see no way around that being treason.
At the very least there should be public hearings in Congress over this matter, but I doubt we'll see that because orange man bad.
