Is Gen. Milley relying on some mutually reciprocal notification of imminent hostilities? If he is, he’s likely to be disappointed.
Asked whether he thought China would attack Taiwan, Gen Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the BBC:
“Could, should, would, those are key words there.
“In terms of capability I think China clearly is developing a capability. President Xi [Jinping] has mentioned that in public forums, he’s mentioned it in speeches, that he has challenged the PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] to develop the capability to attack Taiwan at some point in time.
“And whether they would or not, it’s a political choice, it’s a policy choice, that will be based off of how the Chinese view the cost risk benefit at the time.”
“There’s no indications or warnings of anything imminent at this time. But again, we watch it very, very closely,” Gen Milley added.
Considering Milley’s track record, that’s not so reassuring.
In July, he falsely claimed that a “safe, orderly and responsible transition” was taking place in Afghanistan, and that the 600 U.S. military personnel there were sufficient to “secure the embassy, to secure the international zone and secure HKIA, the international airport in Kabul”.
A month later, even 6,000 troops, ten times that number, would not suffice for the task.
Milley assured reporters that “the Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight” and that “we’re always going to maintain the capability of self-defense”. None of these things were true.
By late July, Milley admitted that, “Strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban.”
By “sort of”, Milley meant that the Taliban had more than doubled their territory again and were marching on half of the provincial capitals.
A week after his testimony, the Taliban had not only doubled their number of districts, but possessed hundreds of captured U.S. armored vehicles, along with artillery and drones.
The Pentagon’s spokesman told reporters to ask the Afghan military about the gear.
In May, Milley had shrugged off questions about whether the Afghan military would survive. “We frankly don’t know yet. We have to wait and see how things develop over the summer.”
“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” Milley later insisted.
“The conditions are set for winning this war,” Milley had asserted back when he was heading up NATO’s ISAF Joint Command under Obama.
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