Waiting for General Milley The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has more explaining to do.
Donald Trump’s behavior as a candidate and President unhinged some of America’s vital institutions, including the press and the FBI. It would be disturbing to find out that military leaders also responded to the President’s norm-breaking by betraying their institutional obligations.
That’s the implication of a report of national-security freelancing by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley at the end of Mr. Trump’s term. Congress needs to find out how much is true—not because of partisan demands for retribution against the general, but because even the appearance of attenuating civilian control of the military is damaging to democracy.
A forthcoming book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa alleges that Gen. Milley called China’s top military commander shortly before the November election and said, “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gen. Milley tried to increase his control over nuclear launch procedures out of fear of what Mr. Trump might do.
Mr. Woodward’s opaque method makes it impossible to judge the accuracy of his reporting. He relates conversations he didn’t hear based on sources whose motives aren’t explained. Those on the right now demanding Gen. Milley’s head based on Mr. Woodward’s book were rightly cautious of the journalist’s insider accounts of GOP presidencies.
Yet the statement from Gen. Milley’s spokesman released Wednesday contains no denials. It merely says the general’s “calls with the Chinese and others in October and January” were intended to “maintain strategic stability” and were “communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.” It says the nuclear-weapons meeting in January “was to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject.”
Four-star generals have always been political actors, though the trend has accelerated in recent years as they try to please a wider range of constituencies. Gen. Milley was nominated by Mr. Trump in 2018 but sought to distance himself amid the summer 2020 riots. He apologized for appearing with President Trump in Lafayatte Square in June after U.S. Park Police moved against protesters outside the White House, publicized his opposition to using troops to suppress riots, and expressed support for Black Lives Matter protests.
Gen. Milley should be asked to clarify, under oath, the context of his communications with China and nuclear launch procedure when he testifies before the Senate on Sept. 28. America’s military brass rightly has deconfliction channels open with adversaries when their forces are in proximity, but promising a tip off before the President ordered an attack would be an outrageous usurpation.
While the military reviewing “long-established” nuclear protocols is hardly a scandal, the book suggests this was done after his calls with Mrs. Pelosi. Generals can take her calls, but she’s not in the chain of command.
Mr. Trump was erratic in the final days of his term, staging an unprecedented if doomed political effort to overturn an American election. But if Gen. Milley genuinely felt the President was that much of a global menace, he should have sounded the alarm and resigned. Figures like William Barr and Don McGahn constrained Mr. Trump’s worst instincts without eviscerating political norms.
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs are typically respected across the political aisle. Gen. Milley’s reputation is already damaged by a botched Afghanistan withdrawal and a Kabul drone strike that killed civilians and is still unexplained. Even if Mr. Biden retains confidence in Gen. Milley, as he said Wednesday, the general’s credibility is in doubt. If the book’s account isn’t accurate, he needs to say so explicitly and specifically.
If Americans are to trust their democratic institutions, and the world’s other powers are to trust America’s defense commitments, it needs to be clear that the military is under the elected President’s control.
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