The Washington Post just revealed excerpts from Bob Woodward’s and Robert Costa’s new book, Peril, that has some really scary stuff:
Top general was so fearful Trump might spark war that he made secret calls to his Chinese counterpart, according to new book by Woodward and Costa
Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country’s top military officer was so fearful that the president’s actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict.
In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa.
This is not the sort of thing a military officer would normally do. But nothing about TFG’s administration was normal.
The first call took place just a few days before the election:
The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack. That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China.
“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”
In the book’s telling, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”
Arguably, calling an enemy to tell them an attack is coming could be considered treason, which Milley certainly knew. That shows how far he was willing to go to keep Trump from blowing up the planet to stay in power.
Then came Jan. 6.
In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn’t as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”
Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, according to the book, understood why. The chairman, 62 at the time and chosen by Trump in 2018, believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election, the authors write, a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a phone call on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable, according to a call transcript obtained by the authors.
“Unstable” really meant “batshit insane.”
The Chairman wasn’t the only one concerned.
Though Milley went furthest in seeking to stave off a national security crisis, his alarm was shared throughout the highest ranks of the administration, the authors reveal. CIA Director Gina Haspel, for instance, reportedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup.”
Even the GOP leadership knew what was likely to happen.
Trump’s fragile ego drove many decisions by the nation’s leaders, from lawmakers to the vice president, according to the book. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was so worried that a call from President-elect Biden would send Trump into a fury that the then-Majority Leader used a backchannel to fend off Biden. He asked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, formerly the No. 2 Senate Republican, to ask Sen. Christopher A. Coons, the Democrat of Delaware and close Biden ally, to tell Biden not to call him.
Not that they would say or do anything in public to admit they knew this, of course. This leaves them just as culpable.
There’s a lot more, but I’m pushing fair use. I’ll close with one paraphrase: Milley — who had been alarmed by Trump ever since he was made to accompany him to that church photo-up — sees a parallel between Jan. 6 and the 1905 Russian revolution. That revolution failed, but created the conditions for the 1917 revolution.
That is a warning that MUST be heeded.
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