"You're Gonna Have a Fucking War": Mark Milley's Fight to Stop Trump from Striking Iran

[catbyte]

Inside the extraordinary final-days conflict between the former President and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

By Susan B. Glasser
July 15, 2021



The last time that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with President Donald Trump was on January 3, 2021. The subject of the Sunday-afternoon meeting, at the White House, was Iran’s nuclear program. For the past several months, Milley had been engaged in an alarmed effort to insure that Trump did not embark on a military conflict with Iran as part of his quixotic campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power. The chairman secretly feared that Trump would insist on launching a strike on Iranian interests that could set off a full-blown war.

There were two “nightmare scenarios,” Milley told associates, for the period after the November 3rd election, which resulted in Trump’s defeat but not his concession: one was that Trump would try “to use the military on the streets of America to prevent the legitimate, peaceful transfer of power.” The other was an external crisis involving Iran. It was not public at the time, but Milley believed that the nation had come close—“very close”—to conflict with the Islamic Republic. This dangerous post-election period, Milley said, was all because of Trump’s “Hitler”-like embrace of the “Big Lie” that the election had been stolen from him; Milley feared it was Trump’s “Reichstag moment,” in which, like Adolf Hitler in 1933, he would manufacture a crisis in order to swoop in and rescue the nation from it.

Meadows, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in the hopes of getting the country safely through to Joe Biden’s Inauguration. The chairman, a burly four-star Army general who had been appointed to the post by Trump in 2019, referred to these meetings with his staff as the “land the plane” calls—as in, “both engines are out, the landing gear are stuck, we’re in an emergency situation. Our job is to land this plane safely and to do a peaceful transfer of power the 20th of January.”

This extraordinary confrontation between the nation’s top military official and the Commander-in-Chief had been building throughout 2020. Before the election, Milley had drafted a plan for how to handle the perilous period leading up to the Inauguration. He outlined four goals: first, to make sure that the U.S. didn’t unnecessarily go to war overseas; second, to make sure that U.S. troops were not used on the streets of America against the American people, for the purpose of keeping Trump in power; third, to maintain the military’s integrity; and, lastly, to maintain his own integrity. He referred back to them often in conversations with others.

snip

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/youre-gonna-have-a-fucking-war-mark-milleys-fight-to-stop-trump-from-striking-iran

[yardwork]

1. We are very fortunate that this man was in charge of the military.

[Demsrule86]

2. Yes we are. He is our times General Butler who

Saved us from the businessman’s plot in the 1930,s

[Thrill]

3. Sounds like Miley saved the country from Trump

Destroying it Domestically and Abroad. Wow

[wnylib]

19. Trump's mistake was in not setting up

the military in advance to be supportive of him. Maybe he assumed that his authority as commander-in-chief was enough.

He never intended to leave office once he got in. It offered him everything he wanted - money schemes, power, attention and adoration, international contacts and power. Michael Cohen said in his testimony before Congress that Trump never intended to leave. Too many people did not believe him.

He set up the stolen election scenario long before election day when polls showed him lagging.

He schemed with his inner circle to arrange the Jan 6 rally and attack on the Capitol.

But he failed to ensure that he had military backing to carry off the insurrection.

There are others who would like to do what Trump failed at. They will have learned from his mistake. I hope there are not any of them already in the military.

[lagomorph777]

22. He did partially succeed at rigging the military too.

That's why the National Guard was blocked. Trump set off a chilling series of firings and resignations at DoD in his final months.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-pentagon-s-top-policy-official-resigned-the-day-after-trump-terminated-his-defense-secretary/ar-BB1aSy7P

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/trump-fires-esper/index.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/02/james-miller-resigns-from-pentagon-slams-esper-for-role-in-trump-photo.html



Even up to his last day in office, Trump kept trying to rig DoD.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/19/trump-loyalists-defense-policy-board-last-minute/

[Paladin]

4. Biden ought to award Milley with a Medal Of Freedom.

Preferably this afternoon.

[jimfields33]

6. Is he the general who walked with trump to the church?

I’m glad he stopped trump on this, but he’s hardly an innocent party.

[Tarc]

7. I believe he addresses that in the book, and deeply regrets it

He's not perfect, I'm glad he was in the position that he was to thwart the orange fascist.

[colsohlibgal]

5. I'm Glad He's Who He Is

My guess is that Fat Orange Blob is intimidated big time by this guy, he’d mop the floor with that pathetic Hitler fan.

[bullwinkle428]

8. We need to encourage Mark Milley to get in front of the cameras as

much as possible, and give detailed accounts of all he went through.

[gab13by13]

9. I'm sure that General Mattis

had similar confrontations with MF45, although he couldn't stop MF45 from abandoning our ally the Kurds, something that caused Mattis to resign. Mattis needed to speak out more, needs to speak out now, about the mad man former president.

[Pepsidog]

10. As remarkable as all this reporting is I fear that many Americans are numb and

disinterested. I fear outrage fatigue has set in long ago regarding Trump’s traitorous behavior that nothing shocks us anymore. Conversely, I hope that the Republican effort to suppress the votes in Republican state legislatures is fueling real outrage and motivates Democrats to go to extraordinary efforts to vote in both 2022 and 2024. I can trade lack of Trump outrage with outrage by Democrats and Independents at voter suppression efforts that motivates Republicans being voted out of existence.

[KS Toronado]

12. I'm with you 100%

[Saoirse9]

11. We owe him so much

He saved the country. With lots of other people, but he recognized very clearly TFG's evil and the threat it posed.

We should thank him again and again.

[lindysalsagal]

13. I kept telling myself that he couldn't corrupt everyone. Now, we know who the hero was.

And the GQP will start undermining him in 3...2...1...There goes GQP military bias.

[Wednesdays]

14. Just imagine if Lord Globula won a second term

He would have sent people like Milley packing, and replaced them with sycophants.

[colorado_ufo]

16. Exactly, like he was doing in the Pentagon.

[ZenDem]

15. This is chilling...

I keep thinking that I could hear nothing else that could convince me more that Cpt Shitstain tried, and came terrifyingly close, to destroying this country.

And then...I hear something else.

What this does, besides giving me chills, is confirm my suspicion...there are good, strong people in all walks of life. Some of them might not be 100% good, but good enough to know what's right.

[BobTheSubgenius]

17. You can thank whoever or whatever you thank that, through some wretched turn of fate,

William Boykin wasn't in Milley's position at the time.

[SKKY]

18. There needs to be a hearing on this. And he needs to be compelled to testify...

...in an open forum and with all 3 of C-SPAN's cameras focused on his every word.

[Tree Lady]

20. The thing that chills me is if we don't find a way

To stop the voter bills and suppression he could win again. If people like my neighbor a retired engineer from San Francisco think that Biden is undoing all the "good" huh? That Trump did, they are going to vote for him again.

Too many lies and misinformation out there that many people firmly believe.

[lagomorph777]

21. Better than a shooting war.