Points out military chief tried to destroy civilian control of ranks
By Bob UnruhFox News commentator Tucker Carlson has a question: Why is Mark Milley still the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Biden administration.
The question is there because, Carlson explained in a commentary published on Fox, that Milley “has repeatedly tried to subvert civilian control of the U.S. military.”
That concept in America puts the military under the direction of a civilian president – and is important because the reverse – the military control of national politics, actually is a military dictatorship.
Carlson explained one situation raised eyebrows, and it isn’t alone.
That was when just before last year’s election, “two former Army officers wrote an open letter to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a man called Mark Milley. The letter was published on a left-wing blog called ‘Defense One.’ Within minutes it was all over the Internet. The authors of the letter had a direct order for Mark Milley, who strictly speaking did not report to them.”
The letter said, “If Donald Trump refuses to leave office, the United States military must remove him by force, and you must give that order.”
They were to tell Milley to remove the duly elected president – by force.
Carlson said, “That was a little shocking. What country is this? Even the usual power-mad partisans in the national news media began to wonder if that was a good idea. Slate.com, of all places, reminded its readers that, no matter how orange Donald Trump might be, military coups generally turn out to be unwise.”
The Pentagon promptly went on the record against the idea, and the story “receded.”
But now, Carlson said, it’s becoming evidence that “Mark Milley himself is the sort of person who considers military coups entirely within the realm of possibility.”
He cited evidence, including that from a new book by reporters at The Washington Post that exposes Milley as “the last person you’d give power to if you could possibly help it.”
He said the book shows Milley describing Donald Trump and the millions who supported him as the moral equivalent of Adolph Hitler.
“As thousands of Trump supporters peacefully gathered in Washington for what they assumed was a constitutionally protected political rally shortly after the election, Milley likened them to ‘brownshirts’ – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party. Trump’s complaints about voter fraud, Milley explained to his advisers, out loud, were actually calls for genocide,” Carlson documented.
Milley’s comments had included, “This is a Reichstag moment. The gospel of the Führer.”
“Think about that,” Carlson wrote. “Your grandfather joined the U.S. military to risk his life fighting the Nazis. Now the head of the U.S. military calls you a Nazi for having your grandfather’s political views. What do you think of that?”
He continued, “This ‘well-read man of history’ is comparing nearly half our country to Adolf Hitler, including presumably the many Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley who voted for Trump because they agreed with him on immigration. Mark Milley isn’t just your average guy with crackpot views, he has control of nuclear weapons. Are we OK with this?”
Milley also has warned against American citizens, or “Nazis.”
“But in the end, no Nazi attack ever came, much to Mark Milley’s disappointment. It wasn’t Dunkirk. Now, you’d think that would be an embarrassment for Mark Milley. You give a speech like that and nothing happens. Some guy dressed like Chewbacca shows up. But no. He later testified before Congress, apparently not referring to himself, that he understands ‘White rage’ better than anyone:.”
Milley, in fact, said, “I want to understand White rage, and I’m white, I want to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America. What caused that? I want to find that out.”
Milley also informed Americans, the Washington Post reported, he had been planning “with other military leaders … how they would block Trump’s order to use the military in a way they deemed dangerous or illegal.”
“Now, wait a second. Is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the guy who’s empowered by our constitution, our democracy, to make those decisions? No, he’s not. We have civilian leadership, he can’t make them independently, if he disagrees, he can resign. But he can’t make them independently,” Carlson said.
He explained Milley confirmed later, to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, he was prepared to take control of the military from civilian-elected leaders.
“According to the Post, some of those ‘checks and balances’ he referred to involved undermining the president’s authority to choose his own CIA director,” Carlson explained.
“When the president reportedly considered firing Gina Haspel who runs the CIA and replacing her with Kush Patel in the closing days of his administration, we now know that Milley pressured the president’s chief of staff not to do that, to keep Haspel,” he explained.
“This is lunacy, it’s not how the government is supposed to work, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs should not be having that conversation, expressing those views, he should leave if he can’t keep them to himself,” Carlson wrote.
He said the problem did not develop overnight.
“We already know Milley was subverting civilian control of the military long before the election even took place. On February 29 of last year, the Trump administration reached a deal with the Taliban to end U.S. military involvement in the country after only 20 years. Immediately, the Pentagon – led by Mark Milley – conspired to kill the deal, which they are not allowed to do under our Constitution, but they did it anyway.”
Now, Carlson said, “The question is: why is Mark Milley still in command of the U.S. military? This is not a small question.”
