I’m a little surprised TPM joined the tut-tutting on this; the rest of the journalist class … not so much. After 4+ years of clear, intentional assaults on pretty much every political norm by tRump™ and associates, Milley did not “erode” civilian control of military control as much as preserve what was left of it in the face of repeated assaults.
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As I recall, the first mention of this came from an excerpt from a soon-to-be released book. There was only the excerpt to reason from.
From there the “punditry” extrapolated stuff because clickbait.
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If this had been written around … say 1864,
General Grant ‘Eroded’ Civilian Control Of Military With March to the Sea
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That truth must be burned in to history.
And they let you when you’re famous.
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First of all, everyone opining on this story is acting with insufficient evidence. (Unless you were in the room.)
When I went through basic training, it was explained that we were expected to disobey any unlawful order. Of course, if a service member uses that as a defense of her conduct, she had better be damned sure of her ground.
One interpretation of Gen. Milley getting a pledge from his subordinates that any order from the President that would normally go through him would, in fact, go through him could be to allow the General to weigh in on the legality of that order.
(Am I not as entitled to my wild-ass interpretation as the next guy?)
In any event, I’m looking forward to learning the details of what went down. If we ever do.
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Exactly. But the problem is that the poor grunts in the silo with the launch keys are in no position to be damned sure of their ground if they are wondering if the lunatic President (or maybe they are thinking of him as the “second coming of Christ President”) is ordering them to launch their weapons just to change the subject from his electoral defeat.
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as of now
‘what if’ the civilian support (government) was lying garbage?
I surrender, please be merciful @godwit
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Reminder: every trump era scandal had someone taking damn notes or taping the conversation.
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Wow, that is a really commonsense solution and would prohibit another McConnell-like blockade. Interesting.
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Yes, it makes complete logical and moral sense. But someone here on TPM will tell us why it is nigh near impossible to do. Lots of things in our government (or any others I imagine) are like that.
@trnc
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We’re told the old Soviet was sure we were planning a preemptive nuclear attack on them under Reagan. Imagine now that the Chinese have an identical fear. Could not this affair have launched such an attack by the Chinese?
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It certainly was possible but at the time of the “Miley Incident”, only the Pentagon had a hot-line to China. Not sure if Biden has established one with President Xi Jinping yet.
Did not know this. Thanks.
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I haven’t searched this guy’s other papers, but I recommend you click through to his essay on China’s PLA and previous Chairs of the Joint Chiefs having meetings with their Chinese counterparts. It’s written by a policy wonk and is more descriptive than prescriptive, and is definitely not angst-ridden.
Direct link to the paper
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So what you’re saying is, it doesn’t stand a chance. 
(sob).
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I guess Xi wasn’t that impressed by the big, beautiful chocolate cake
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Mother Superior took the distributor cap from the Nazis’ Mercedes-Benz. That turned out for the best. {edit: see next two items}
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Mother Superior, I have sinned……
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That sounds familiar, so I probably got the perpetrator incorrect.
Well … yes … if you ask the Nazis.