Page 732 - Commanders News Today

Missignal from the united states convincing china that we want war. the intelligence, as you were laying out at the top there, how the united states believed that the chinese believed that we were going to launch an attack. its just an extraordinary thing. and that donald trump was going to do this to make himself essentially the hero. look, it never happens, but if youre milley and you know that youre not surrounded by a cabinet of folks who can help you to contain trump, you know theres a lot ...

Administration to reassure him that donald trump had no plans to attack china in an effort to remain in power and that the u.s. was not collapsing. yet despite his assurances, general milley was so concerned about trump that later that day he convened a meeting with top commanders to remind them that the procedures for launching a nuclear weapon called for his involvement in such a decision. the book also sheds light on just how close the u.s. came to a full-blown international crisis with china...

Dynamics out there before. youre getting brand new details. i want to come back. we were talking about the revelation about general milley, americas top general saying i need to get the commanders together. im worried. he was worried that trump was going to try to do another rount and issue an order for military strikes in iran. if you get calls, he told them in a top secret pentagon meeting, no matter who theyre from, theres a process here. theres a procedure. no matter what youre told, you do ...

Absolutely. under the constitution he had complete authority. theres only two civilians who can give instructions to the operational commanders of the armed forces, the secretary of defense, who was an acting sec def, a sycophant from the trump white house, and mr. trump, who was obviously volatile, out of control, disobeying the law. by the way, the chairman does not have to be in the loop for a nuclear strike. he has authority to disseminate instructions and receive reports delegated to him by...

Individuals may not have qualified, in a sense. now, you say theyre being vetted. good. they should be. you know, nobody knows because we cant get this information from the department of homeland security, from the state department and others. but, you know, from the start many of you said what we do there needs to be based on conditions on the ground. quite frankly the presidents decision was not based on conditions on the ground. thats why it was a disastrous withdrawal. thats why it put so ma...

Now, you say that theyre being vetted. good, they should be. and you know, nobody knows because we cant get good information. from department of homeland security, from the state department and others, but you know, from the start, many of us have said what we do there needs to be based on conditions on the ground. quite frankly, the presidents decision was not based on conditions on the ground. thats why it was a disastrous withdrawal. thats why it puts so many people at risk. it should have be...

Dont worry about anything. what do you say? >> i say erin, this is typical of high level commanders talking to counterparts, both allies and foes. how do i know that? i did it. part of the requirement of any military commander is to establish relationships with those in his theater. for the chairman, its very different. the chair mman travels the worl and meets counterparts. hes been to china twice as the chairman and maybe again as the chief of staff of the army where you meet these kind of ind...

This room in congress is staggering. we should have more hearings on what happened in afghanistan. starting with decision to divert huge amount of u.s. troops and resources to iraq. one of the biggest stra -- strategic blunders. iran has been the biggest beneficiary of that decision. and fast-forward now to the trump administration. i did not oppose the decision of the trump administration to open up negotiations for the taliban. everybody in this room, i suspect recognized no military solution ...

The chairman of the jcs has delegated authority to accept reports from the joint operational commanders and can transmit the secretary of defenses orders to them. the president of the united states can actually call the sec def and order a nuclear strike. we ought to be cognizant we ought to get two or three other constitutional figures involved in this process. we were in great peril in the waning days of the trump administration. >> general barry mccaffrey, thanks as always for that context an...

This. trump may tell someone else to launch some sort of strike and that they would actually go ahead and do this. this was a common tactic throughout the trump administration where trump would be afraid to do something else, so he would mention it openly in meetings and ask people to do it. he at one point even asked people outside the white house, corey lewandowski to try to fire his attorney general. milley, having as good a sense as anyone about trump and his possibilities and his unusual vi...