Suppose a hostile, confrontational neighbor, angry with you for years over seemingly everything, ranging from borrowed money to property boundaries, called you in the middle of the night to say: “Don’t worry. I don’t plan to kill you. If I do come to murder you, I will warn you first.”
What would you do?:
a) Go back to sleep.
b) Call the police.
c) Prepare to defend yourself.
If you are a normal person, you would probably: (b) Call the police and (c) Prepare to defend yourself.
If you are Communist China and you received such a call from the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, you would probably: (b) alert Chairman Xi Jinping and other political-military leaders of the PRC and (c) mobilize nuclear and conventional forces to defend yourself.
If you are Communist China, depending upon how seriously you regard General Milley, you might also at least consider (d) launching a preemptive nuclear strike to kill General Milley and the United States, before they kill you.
According to the new book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, something like the above actually happened, but in their telling President Trump is supposed to be the bad guy, and General Milley the hero.
Reportedly, “Peril” co-author Robert Costa said: “General Milley became so concerned about Mr. Trump’s mental state that he assembled senior military leaders and advised them not to carry out a presidential order to launch a nuclear strike unless he was there.”
Allegedly, on October 30, General Miley called his counterpart in China, General Li Zuocheng, supposedly to reassure China’s top general, commander of the People’s Liberation Army, that the U.S. had no immediate plans to make a surprise nuclear strike or other attack on China: “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.”
Allegedly, on January 8, two days after protestors occupied the U.S. Capitol, General Milley called General Li supposedly to again reassure him that the U.S. was not heading toward anarchy that could result in a nuclear surprise attack on China: “Things may look unsteady. But that’s the nature of democracy, General Li. We are 100 percent steady.”
“Peril” authors Woodward and Costa are no fans of President Trump, have a history of propagandizing, and their story clearly fits the leftwing media’s unending campaign to discredit Trump and convince Trump voters they made a mistake.
However, General Milley and his spokesman Colonel David Butler issued a classic Washington “nondenial denial” that appears to confirm the JCS Chairman called General Li to tell him a U.S. surprise nuclear attack was not imminent: “His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability.”
But there is no evidence China needed reassuring or that strategic stability was imperiled. Nuclear strategic instability with China resulting from the contentious U.S. elections was all in General Milley’s head.
What else is in General Milley’s head?
JCS Chairman Milley is a believer in “white rage” and Marxist “critical race theory” that condemns Western Civilization as evil and deserving destruction.
General Milley also shares the radical Left’s paranoid aversion to President Trump and conservative and libertarian voters. These Milley’s Defense Department categorizes as potential “domestic violent extremists” to be rooted o
Nor is it the job of the JCS Chairman, who is the President’s military advisor, to usurp the President’s role or act on such an important matter—involving nuclear war with China—without the President’s knowledge and consent.
Such a head as General Milley’s does not deserve to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, let alone JCS Chairman, as proven yet again by his hysterical phone calls to General Li—that might have provoked a nuclear war.
China’s General Li almost certainly had no concerns about a U.S. surprise nuclear attack resulting from the elections, until after receiving “reassurances” from JCS Chairman Milley.
Congressional hearings on this matter—and there ought at minimum to be hearings, if not an emergency congressional commission—should investigate the alert status of China’s nuclear and conventional forces. Is there any evidence of China mobilizing ICBMs or the PLA Air Force or Navy in response to General Milley’s “reassurances”?
“If the allegations are true, General Milley should go down in history as a traitor to the American people,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs. Biggs’visceral reaction shows much sounder judgment than the considered opinions of President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin have nothing but praise for General Milley. They and Democrat media allies are “circling the wagons” to defend the embattled JCS Chairman and fellow Trump-hater.
Democrats and their anti-nuclear political base often argue against modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent because, supposedly, they fear accidental nuclear war:
–They want to ban U.S. ICBMs unilaterally to avoid accidental nuclear war.
–They oppose a new U.S. sea-launched cruise missile to avoid accidental nuclear war.
–They oppose the W76-2 tactical nuclear warhead on SLBMs to avoid accidental nuclear war.
–Some oppose virtually any modernization of the U.S. nuclear Triad to avoid “arms racing” that could lead to accidental nuclear war.
But they think not at all about how nuclear “strategic stability” must look to Russia, China, and North Korea, when Democrats lie:
–that there is a big problem with “insurrectionists” and “white supremacists” in the military. Including in ICBM Launch Control Facilities and aboard missile submarines?
–that the January 6 protests were an “insurrection” to overthrow the U.S. government. Could insurrectionists get the launch codes?
–that President Trump was a mentally unstable monster deserving multiple impeachments. Will equally insane Trump loyalists still within the military launch a surprise nuclear attack?
–that neither President Trump or President Biden should be entrusted with authority to launch nuclear missiles without a vote from Congress. Are U.S. Presidents now so demented that even their own people don’t trust them with nuclear weapons?
How to start an accidental nuclear war? Keep talking crap like the above. And keep heads like General Milley’s on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, served as Chief of Staff of the Congressional EMP Commission, and on the staffs of the House Armed Services Committee and the CIA. He has authored numerous books and articles on EMP and Cyber Warfare.
https://www.newsmax.com/peterpry/cyberattacks-nuclear-exercises-cisa/2020/12/21/id/1002586/
