Media Downplay Civilian Control of Military to Punish Trump
Any future general could get away with military superiority over civilian officials.
by Donald Devine
October 4, 2021, 10:52 PM
The Washington Post has a problem. How should it handle one of its most important leakers of inside government information — a person it exposed — considering that its treatment of him might discourage future leaks from other high-level government officials?
That problem is Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified last week before the Senate and House oversight committees regarding his role in the Afghanistan retreat from Kabul and two earlier secret phone calls.
As a new book titled Peril by Post celebrity reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa revealed — with splashy front page coverage — the general made surreptitious phone calls to the top Chinese Liberation Army general, Li Zuocheng. Milley reportedly promised the U.S. would not attack China, adding, “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time.”
Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius explained Milley’s purpose in alerting and making this promise to a foreign power was “to calm Chinese fears that [President Donald] Trump might take rash military action” against them. Ignatius justified this action by the president’s “chief military advisor” because “he feared that Trump would use a violent crisis at home or abroad to draw the military into his machinations to retain power.” Milley “was determined to prevent this politicization of the military, and the nation owes him a debt of thanks for his vigilance.”
more
https://spectator.org/media-downplay-civilian-control-of-military-to-punish-trump/
