Gen. Mark Milley, polarizing Joint Chiefs chairman, exits center stage – September 24, 2023

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Admirers say he helped save American democracy. Critics contend he dragged the military deeper into the country’s toxic political fray.

By Dan Lamothe, 

Missy Ryan and 

Karen DeYoung

Editor’s Note: While it is easy for an armchair general to judge, perhaps witnessing the “fruit of the tree” yields a better assessment of value.

There is little argument on the current state of obvious degradation for the “visible” armed forces in America. This may be due to the leadership of Milley, whose primary claim-to-fame has been the production of a “woke” army…which leads one to question the allegiance of the top military leader who may have consciously “did things MY way”.

Certainly, all things occur for the best of reasons, so let us rejoice that all things appearing NOW (No Other Way) enhance why “duality” is NOT productive, nor supportive for the human race! As we all discover “and”, instead of fighting for “or”, let us BE in…

Quantum Joy!

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As the war in Ukraine approached its first anniversary, the Pentagon’s top officer, Gen. Mark A. Milley, assessed the carnage that had followed Russia’s full-scale invasion: With more than than 100,000 soldiers likely killed or wounded on each side, he said, there was a “window of opportunity” for the combatants to hammer out a deal.

Milley told an audience in New York that both parties must recognize victory may not be “achievable through military means.” He drew a comparison to World War I, explaining how strategists a century earlier had predicted a swift end to the bloodshed, only for it to become an unwinnable standoff that killed millions and set the stage for World War II. “Things can get worse, so when there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it,” Milley said. “Seize the moment.”

The declaration was classic Milley, according to colleagues and observers who have worked closely with him. The general, immersed in military history and alarmed by the potential for escalation with Russia, the largest nuclear power in the world, was publicly advocating a position the Biden administration had eschewed as the president and other top advisers sought to project unqualified support for Ukraine’s defense. It was a notion that unnerved America’s partners in Kyiv.

Milley, whose four-year tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ends with his retirement this month, will exit center stage as one of the most consequential and polarizing military chiefs in recent memory, leading America’s armed forces through a fraught period that included the precarious final months of Donald Trump’s presidency, a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Washington’s high-stakes standoff with Moscow.

Admirers commend the brash Boston-area native for steering the military through Trump’s attempts to subvert democracy and the constitutional rule of law, keeping troops out of the 2020 election chaos and choreographing key aspects of the Pentagon’s support to Ukraine. Milley would say later he harbored concern that Trump might issue unlawful orders, and that, if he had, they “wouldn’t have been followed.”

Critics say the general stretched the bounds of what is expected to be a nonpartisan role, wading into hot-button debates again and again, and dragging the military farther into the political fray at a time when the institution’s public backing is already under strain. Some found him overly focused on his own legacy.

This account of Milley’s tenure as chairman is based on interviews with more than a dozen senior political appointees in both the Trump and Biden administrations, retired military officers and other Washington insiders. Several people spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer frank assessments of the general’s record. Collectively, they portrayed an outspoken, ambitious leader who offended some in his assumption and stewardship of the military’s premier assignment, and who fell from favor with one president only to find new footing with another, all while navigating Washington’s toxic politics.

Milley, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed for this profile.