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Demosthenes's avatar

Is General Mark Milley guilty of treason?

Asked by Demosthenes (15217points) September 15th, 2021

Following the January 6th riots, General Mark Milley secretly contacted a Chinese general and warned him that Trump might “go rogue” and attack China. This story was initially dismissed (even by Trump) but has been found to be true. Republicans are calling on Milley to resign for undermining the sitting president, others are going as far as accusing him of Treason. What do you think should happen to him?

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15 Answers

Tropical_Willie's avatar

” Republicans are calling on Milley to resign for undermining the sitting president, others are going as far as accusing him of Treason . . ” How does that work ?

Trump could have started WW III just to stay President !

TJFKAJ's avatar

If it’s true he broke the chain of command.
He could face a Court Martial for that.
If he does I doubt the charge will be treason.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

All members of the US armed forces swear to uphold the Constitution. They do not swear loyalty to any person. He was acting absolutely correctly.

JLoon's avatar

Miley is currently, and was during the previous administration, Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff. In military terms there is no “chain of command” above his authority – except the President himself.

Trump’s state of mind and his conduct during the last two months of his term were chaotic and deeply concerning to everyone around him – from top level White House staff, to Attorney General William Barr, to FBI Director Christopher Wray, to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Each of them communicated to congressional contacts in both parties (and off the record to reporters) that they believed Trump’s obsession with holding onto power following the November elections could lead to violations of law – or actions that would damage national security and US interests abroad. The President was increasingly seen as unstable, and a potential threat to the government itself.

That’s how bad it really was. And none of the Constitutional safeguards intended to protect the country against a corrupt or incompetent President worked. The full extent of the damage and the danger is only beginning to come out :

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/06/william-barrs-trump-administration-attorney-general/619298/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/politics/fbi-director-voter-fraud.html

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/youre-gonna-have-a-fucking-war-mark-milleys-fight-to-stop-trump-from-striking-iran

https://www.mediaite.com/news/officials-say-defense-secretary-mark-esper-took-lead-on-gen-milleys-calls-to-china/

As Hawaii_Jake has rightly pointed out, all members of the military, senior officers and enlisted personnel, swear an oath to the Constitution – not to the President or any other authority. So, what exactly should a decorated veteran officer in charge of the entire US defense establishment do when he realizes a fucking lying, draft doging, meglomaniac, con man, nutcase is trying to misuse the military as a tool to prop up his own rotten regime?? Ask the damn political hacks in Congress who’ve been empowering this scheme if they would mind, please, whenever they’re in the mood, and if it’s okay with their cult leader, to just sort of…slow down a little??!

Thank god for General Mark Miley. And goddamn all stinking political whores who say what he did was treason.

filmfann's avatar

General Mark Milley secretly contacted a Chinese general and warned him that Trump might “go rogue” and attack China.
That’s not exactly right.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart twice in the waning months of Donald Trump’s presidency to secretly reassure Beijing that the U.S. would not attack.
There is nuance here. He didn’t warn the Chinese about a possible pending attack, he told them to chill out because there wouldn’t be any attack.

rebbel's avatar

Let’s thank the guy.
We could have been walking around with completely different masks right now, if it was not for him.
If we weren’t dead.

flutherother's avatar

Anything anyone does to postpone “The Rapture” is OK with me.

Forever_Free's avatar

Nope. Completely normal and common thing he did. Don’t make any more hype about it.

Military leaders talk.

Demosthenes's avatar

@filmfann That is true. I hastily posted this from my phone and incorrectly paraphrased a sentence from an article.

While I don’t think he’s guilty of treason, this whole thing strikes me as a little silly. Trump is unstable, yeah, we knew that, but nuking China because of a failed insurrection? I was one of those who said all along that Trump was going to leave office peacefully (despite how much trouble he caused in denying the results of the election). I just don’t see why the prospect of nuking China was even on the table for Milley or the Chinese.

ragingloli's avatar

@Demosthenes
Because there was already precedent for the Orangutan’s penchant for half-baked military decisions.
Remember that he had an Iranian general assassinated on a whim at the beginning of 2020, which almost led to another war, until drumpf got cold feet.
#WW3 was trending for a while, until Covid really got going.

Zaku's avatar

I think his actions were appropriate and patriotic and entirely the right thing to do, faced with a corrupt traitorous madman man-child in the White House. I suggest giving him a commendation, and condemning all the Republicans who supported and abetted Trump for corruption and treason and election interference, and requiring them all to resign.

kritiper's avatar

@Demosthenes ”...the prospect of nuking China…” may not have ”...even been on the table for Milley or the Chinese.” but I see no harm in Milley covering all possibilities, just in case.

TJFKAJ's avatar

@Hawaii_Jake
The Constitution says the the President is the CIC.

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