Gen. Milley secretly promised China he’d warn them before a US attack

During multiple secret phone calls, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley promised China’s top general that he would warn the communist nation of an impending attack from the United States, according to a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

According to excerpts first revealed Tuesday from the forthcoming book entitled “Peril,” as reported by the Washington Post, the first phone call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, just four days before the presidential election between then-President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The second call took place on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the storming of the United States Capitol.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told the People’s Liberation Army general. “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,” Milley added. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

According to the authors, Li trusted Milley enough to take him at his word after the first call, but was more resistant in the second call.

“We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine,” Milley assured the Chinese general. “But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” <Source>

Gen. Mark Milley: Russian woes in Ukraine should be a lesson for China on Taiwan

The Pentagon’s top general said China should carefully consider how poorly Russia is faring so far in its military operation against Ukraine as it contemplates any amphibious assault on Taiwan.

“War on paper is a whole lot different than real war,” Gen. Milley told reporters at the Pentagon. “When blood is spilled and people die and real tanks are being blown up, things are a little bit different.”

He noted that China hasn’t faced an enemy on the battlefield since the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979. Beijing would be playing “a very dangerous game” if it attempts a crossing of the Taiwan Strait, Gen. Milley said. “They don’t have the experience [or] the background to do it. They haven’t trained to [do] it yet,” he said.

[OCS: Typically, politicians and diplomats are the ones to issue warnings, not active duty generals playing to the media – which changes the tone and nature of the remarks.] 

China had a largely infantry-based army with few heavy combat tanks in its inventory when Gen. Milley was commissioned in 1980.

“And then they got rich,” he said, adding that Beijing’s explosive economic growth in recent years has allowed China to “buy a military.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently reaffirmed that Beijing preferred the “peaceful reunification” of Taiwan but explicitly refused to rule out military action.

“They believe that it’s their day in the sun. They believe it’s, once again, time for the ‘Middle Kingdom’ to be No. 1,” Gen. Milley said. “That’s what they’re shooting for, and we are not going to allow that to happen.”

Even as it continues to pour billions of dollars of security assistance into Ukraine, Gen. Milley acknowledged that the U.S. considers China the nation’s pacing threat. Beijing is the one country in the world that has the diplomatic, military and economic power to pose a significant challenge to the United States.

[OCS: Security assistance, my ass. We are funding the military-industrial complex in a conflict that the State Department and CIA created.

Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs “Toria” Nuland was the “mastermind” behind the Feb. 22, 2014 “regime change” in Ukraine, plotting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych while convincing the ever-gullible U.S. mainstream media that the coup wasn’t really a coup but a victory for “democracy.” <Source>

We see billions of dollars unaccountably wash through Ukraine – and as we have allegedly seen, some $40 million being diverted back to the Democrat Party through the bankrupt FTX scam.]

China has also stepped up military exercises around Taiwan, in part to protest the recent visit to the island by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August, the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel to Taipei in a quarter-century.

“China is not shy about their goal. They want to be equal to or superior militarily to the United States,” Gen. Milley said. “They’re working on that very, very hard.”

While an amphibious assault might be beyond China’s military abilities in the near term, Beijing is capable of dropping bombs and launching missiles at Taiwan, Gen. Milley said.

“Attacking and seizing the island of Taiwan across the straits, putting troops on the island of Taiwan, that is a very difficult military task to do,” he said. “I think it’ll be some time before the Chinese have the military capability and they’re ready to do it.”

[OCS: For a “face-conscious nation like China, such comments can be interpreted as provocative challenges that may trigger some display or demonstration of force. Possibly, a near-kinetic action in the disputed waters of the South China Sea near China’s artificial islands? Or additional challenge sorties by an enemy air force testing the limits of Taiwan’s ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone), potentially leading to an accident? Or, on the other hand, possibly inspiring overconfidence in the situation, which may lead to a lack of readiness to respond to provocative actions?]

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Woodward/Costa book: Worried Trump could 'go rogue,' Milley took secret action to protect nuclear weapons

Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to "Peril," a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, 'was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.'

Milley worried that Trump could 'go rogue,' the authors write.

"You never know what a president's trigger point is," Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.

In response, Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon's war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.

"No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood.

'You know he's crazy'

Milley's fear was based on his own observations of Trump's erratic behavior. His concern was magnified by the events of January 6 and the 'extraordinary risk' the situation posed to US national security, the authors write. Milley had already had two back-channel phone calls with China's top general, who was on high alert over the chaos in the US.

“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.”

In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors.

[OCS: 8 USC Ch. 115. §2381. Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.]

Then Milley received a blunt phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the book. Woodward and Costa exclusively obtained a transcript of the call, during which Milley tried to reassure Pelosi that the nuclear weapons were safe.

Pelosi pushed back.

"What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?"

Pelosi continued, "You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time."

According to Woodward and Costa, Milley responded, "Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything."

After the call, Milley decided he had to act. He told his top service chiefs to watch everything "all the time." He called the director of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, and told him, "Needles up ... keep watching, scan." And he told then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, "Aggressively watch everything, 360."

The authors write, 'Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America's national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.'

Woodward and Costa also write that 'some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,' but he believed his actions were 'a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons.'

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