General Milley promised Chinese he’d Warn them if U.S. planned attack

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.  

In the book’s account, 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 an irregular means of communication.

“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”  (Washington Post).

If you were the Chinese general, how would you hear Milley's remark except as an veiled threat of pending attack?  That would worsen military tensions between the two powers.

President Donald Trump said, “So, first of all, if it is actually true, which is hard to believe, that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack, that’s treason” (Fox News).  General Milley's evident intention certainly violates the American principle of civilian command of the military.

Seth Mandel tweeted, "It sounds to me from the reports and the excerpts that Milley misread both his own govt and the Chinese govt and got played by the latter under pressure. He’s not a traitor, but he’s not good enough at his job. And he has an important job! He probably shouldn’t (Twitter https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/1437953597304680457)."

Mr Mandel missed the fact that Milley was promising to reveal American military moves in advance.  That's espionage.  But the Biden White House and the American Left contemn the American military.

Senator Rand Paul tweeted, "I don’t care what you think of President Trump, the Chairman of the JCOS working to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China is exactly what we do not accept from military leaders in our country. He should be court martialed if true (Twitter)."