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Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
a raving lunatic in the Oval Office

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Milley’s detractors have focused on his Oct. 30, 2020, and Jan. 8 telephone calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng, his Chinese counterpart, to calm Chinese fears that Trump might take rash military action. This criticism is misplaced. Military-to-military contacts to “deconflict” crises are common and essential.

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Avoiding unintended confrontations is part of the job for a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And though the chairman isn’t formally in the chain of command, Dunford and others say there was nothing improper in Milley’s request that commanders keep him informed, as the president’s chief military adviser, if Trump gave an order to use nuclear weapons or other military force.

The focus on Milley misses a larger point: He was just one of a half-dozen senior military and civilian officials who took similar unusual steps during the final months of Trump’s administration to prevent what they feared might be a domestic or international catastrophe. This group — which quietly placed guardrails around the president’s actions — included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William P. Barr, CIA Director Gina Haspel and other senior officials, according to Woodward and Costa’s book and my own reporting.

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Milley doesn’t do anything quietly, unlike his predecessor, Dunford. And he may have been indiscreet in some of his attempts to ring the alarm bell. But his contacts with foreign officials to reduce risk of conflict weren’t much different from what other chairmen have done. What was unusual were his pledges to Pelosi and other U.S. officials to restrain any unlawful or improper actions by the commander in chief.

Milley is a target right now. But even as we underline the proper limits on the role of military leaders, we should remember that this problem began with a lawless president who threatened to politicize the military — to the point that the top-ranking general decided to fight back to fulfill what he saw as his paramount duty, to safeguard his country.

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Originally posted by RealPlayer:
Milley wouldn’t have been put in that position if they had exercised the 25th Amendment.