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Mark Milley

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Embrace the Constitution, keep it close to your heart. It is our North Star.

Mark Alexander Milley (born June 18, 1958) is a retired United States Army general, the 20th and current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015 to August 9, 2019, and has held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces throughout his military career. Milley retired on 30 September 2023, concluding 43 years of service in the United States Armed Forces.

Quotes

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There's 2.1 million of us in uniform. And the American people can take it to the bank that all of us, every single one of us from private to general, we're loyal to that Constitution and we'll never turn our back on it, no matter what the threats, no matter what the humiliation, no matter what.
If we're willing to die for that document, if we're willing to deploy to combat, if we're willing to lose an arm, a leg, an eye, to protect and support and defend that document and protect the American people, then we're willing to live for it, too.
The nature of war is not going to change. It's still a political act. It's a decision by humans to impose their political will on their opponent by the use of violence.
Combat is not for the faint of heart, it's not for the weak-kneed, it's not for those who are not psychologically resilient and tough and hardened to the brutality, to the viciousness of it. We've got to get this Army hard, and we've got to get it hard fast.
As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched, and I am not immune. As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I've learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.
They were traitors at the time, they are traitors today, and they're traitors in death for all of eternity. Change the names, Mr. President.
The 6th of January was one of the days of high risk. Neither I, nor anyone that I know of, to include the FBI or anybody else, envisioned the thousands of people who assaulted the capitol. To basically encircle the Capitol and assault it from multiple directions simultaneously, and to do what they did, that was something else. The 6th was pretty dramatic. That's about as dramatic as you're going to see it, short of a civil war... What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.
We have challenges to be sure, but the military has been and remains the largest meritocracy in the world. We promote, we advance and we select based on your knowledge, your skills, your attributes and the content of your character. We are stronger together. Diversity builds a better team and readiness.

2018

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  • We don't want to lose thousands of soldiers to [the ACFT]. This fitness test is hard. No one should be under any illusions about it, but we really don't want to lose soldiers on the battlefield. We don't want young men and women to get killed in action because they weren't fit.
  • Combat is not for the faint of heart, it's not for the weak-kneed, it's not for those who are not psychologically resilient and tough and hardened to the brutality, to the viciousness of it. We've got to get this Army hard, and we've got to get it hard fast.

2020

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June 2020

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Excerpt from a speech Milley made at the National Defense University's graduation ceremony on 11 June 2020, referring to the events of 1 June 2020, where then-U.S. President Donald Trump ordered numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies to move in ahead of a planned publicity photo-op at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., a church Trump has never attended services at and only stood in front of on 1 June 2020, resulting in the tear-gassing, clubbing, and shooting with rubber bullets of many protestors. Milley was among the entourage that accompanied Trump to the church and back.
  • As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched, and I am not immune. As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I've learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it. Embrace the Constitution, keep it close to your heart. It is our North Star.
    • As quoted by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 106-107

House Armed Services Committee (July 2020)

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Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, chaired at the time by Representative Adam Smith of Washington state, alongside Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, in July 2020.
  • George Floyd's death amplified the pain, the frustration and the fear that so many of our fellow Americans live with day in and day out. I have many policemen in my family, and I am personally outraged by George Floyd's brutal and senseless killing. The protests that have ensued not only speak to this injustice, but also to centuries of injustice towards Black Americans. We, as a nation and as a military, are still struggling with racism, and we have much work to do.
  • Since the protests began, I sought information to help me assess the ability of federal, state and local authorities to handle situations under their responsibility. I continually assessed and advised that it was not necessary to employ active duty troops in response to the civil unrest occurring in our nation. It was my view then, and it remains so now, that local, state and federal police backed up by the National Guard under governor control, could, and continually can, effectively handle the security situation in every case across the country.

September 2020

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  • We have challenges to be sure, but the military has been and remains the largest meritocracy in the world. We promote, we advance and we select based on your knowledge, your skills, your attributes and the content of your character. We are stronger together. Diversity builds a better team and readiness.

2021

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January 2021

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  • The 6th of January was one of the days of high risk. Neither I, nor anyone that I know of, to include the FBI or anybody else, envisioned the thousands of people who assaulted the capitol. To basically encircle the Capitol and assault it from multiple directions simultaneously, and to do what they did, that was something else. The 6th was pretty dramatic. That's about as dramatic as you're going to see it, short of a civil war... What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.
    • Excerpt from remarks to senior staff following the 6 January 2021 assault on the United States Capitol by supporters of then-U.S. President Donald Trump, as quoted by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 415-416

May 2021

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  • Opportunity in our military must be reflective of the diverse talent in order for us to remain strong. Our nation is ready to fulfill the promise of our Constitution to build a more perfect union and to ensure equal justice for all people, and it is your generation that can and will bring the joint force to be truly inclusive of all people.

2022

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West Point graduation address (May 2022)

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Address to the United States Military Academy's Class of 2022 at their graduation ceremony. As quoted by Terri Moon Cronk, West Point Graduates Are What Is Inherent in the U.S. Military, Milley Says, Defense.gov, 21 May 2022.
  • [You] have become a team. And you're going to be drawing upon each other for the rest of your lives.
  • You are what makes the United States undaunted by the difficult, and motivated by the impossible.
  • We are facing, right now, two global powers: China and Russia, each with significant military capabilities, and both fully intend to change the current rules-based order.
  • [And in Ukraine, we are learning the lesson that] aggression left unanswered only emboldens the aggressor. Let us never forget the massacre that we have just witnessed in Bucha. Know the slaughter that occurred in Mariupol. And the best way to honor their sacrifice is to support their fight for freedom and to stand against tyranny.
  • The nature of war is not going to change. It's still a political act. It's a decision by humans to impose their political will on their opponent by the use of violence.
  • You're entering a different world. The United States is under significant challenges in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. We see revanchist Russia, as we have just witnessed another invasion in Ukraine. In Asia, we are in the third decade of the largest global economic shift in 500 years, resulting in a rapidly rising China as a great power with a revisionist foreign policy backed up with an increasingly capable military.
  • You'll be fighting with robotic tanks, ships and airplanes. We've witnessed a revolution in lethality and precision munitions. What was once the exclusive province of the U.S. military is now available to most nation states with the money and will to acquire them.
  • And finally, there is the mother of all technologies — artificial intelligence — where machines are actually developing the capacity to learn and to reason. These rapidly converging developments in time and space are resulting in that profound change — the most profound change ever in human history. And whatever overmatch we, the United States, enjoy militarily … the United States is challenged in every domain of warfare: space, cyber, maritime, air and land.
  • In your world, you're going to have to optimize yourselves for urban combat, not rural combat. That has huge implications for intelligence collection, vehicles, weapons design, development, logistics, camo and all of the other aspects of our progression.
  • Globally, there's an increase in nationalism and authoritarian governments, regional arms races and unresolved territorial claims, ethnic and sectarian disputes and an attempt by some countries to return to an 18th-century concept of balance of power politics with spheres of influence.
  • As you march into your future, have the vision to change and to prevent war from happening in the first place. By maintaining peace through the strength of the U.S. military, and the example of our values, it is up to you, today.
  • We are proud of you. You have a difficult and dangerous road ahead, and no one should underestimate it. But you also have the opportunity to navigate those dangerous roads ahead and to lead our nation's most precious resource: the young men and women who don the cloth of this nation, the American soldier.

2023

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60 Minutes interview

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  • Milley: Look, I'm a soldier. I've been faithful and loyal to the Constitution of the United States for 44-and-a-half years. And my family and I have sacrificed greatly for this country, and my mother and father before them. And, you know, as much as these comments are directed at me, it's also directed at the institution of the military. There's 2.1 million of us in uniform. And the American people can take it to the bank that all of us, every single one of us from private to general, we're loyal to that Constitution and we'll never turn our back on it, no matter what the threats, no matter what the humiliation, no matter what. If we're willing to die for that document, if we're willing to deploy to combat, if we're willing to lose an arm, a leg, an eye, to protect and support and defend that document and protect the American people, then we're willing to live for it, too. So, I'm not going to comment directly on those things, but I can tell you that this military, this soldier, me- we'll never turn our back on that Constitution.
    Milley: But for the record, was there anything inappropriate or treasonous about the calls you made to China?
    Milley: Absolutely not. Zero. None.
    O'Donnell: It almost seems odd to ask this question. Because the former commander-in-chief seems to be calling for your execution. Are you worried about your safety?
    Milley: I've got adequate safety protection. I wish those comments had not been made, but they were, and we'll take appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family.
    • Excerpt from Norah O'Donnell's interview of Milley on 27 September 2023 on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, addressing a post by Donald Trump on Truth Social on 22 September 2023, implying that Milley had committed treason by counteracting Trump's attempts to stay in office in January 2021[1].

Quotes about Milley

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"Why did you apologize?" the president asked again. "That's a sign of weakness." "Mr. President," he said, looking directly at Trump, "not where I come from."
~ Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
A selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war. ~ John F. Kelly
This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! ~ Donald Trump
  • Trump, the Napoleon of Mar-a-Lago, knew little about history. But like the French emperor banished to Elba, his aspirations for a comeback could not be ruled out. History is full of similarly improbable might-have-beens. Just because no American president before or since Grover Cleveland has managed the feat of returning to office once cast out of it does not mean it cannot happen. After Napoleon reclaimed the throne and was finally defeated once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the victorious British general, the Duke of Wellington, summed up the twelve-hour fight. It was, he wrote a friend, "the nearest-run thing you ever saw." John Kelly thought of Waterloo when he would tell the story about the time Trump almost blew up the NATO alliance at a Brussels summit less than twenty miles away from where the famous battle took place. "That was a very close-run thing," Kelly would say. Mark Milley thought of the famous quote about Waterloo when he considered how nearly the country came to losing its democracy altogether. "It was a very close-run thing," he told an associate. After it was all done and over, Milley believed that Trump had tried something never tried before in the 230 years of the republic- to illegitimately hold on to power.
    • Peter Baker & Susan Glasser, The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 (2022), New York: Doubleday, hardcover, p. 651-652
  • Speaking of the seven-week war in Ukraine ignited by Vladimir Putin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is warning us to expect a war that lasts for years. “I do think this is a very protracted conflict … measured in years,” Milley told Congress. “I don’t know about a decade, but at least years, for sure.” As our first response, said Milley, we should build more military bases in Eastern Europe and begin to rotate U.S. troops in and out.
  • What can I add that has not already been said? A person [Trump] that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all 'suckers' because 'there is nothing in it for them.' A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because 'it doesn't look good for me.' A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are 'losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France.
    A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
    There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.
    • John F. Kelly, referring to former President of the United States, Donald Trump on 3 October 2023, in commentary to CNN, following Trump's post about Milley on Truth Social on 22 September 2023. Kelly served in the Trump administration as the 28th White House Chief of Staff (July 31, 2017 – January 2, 2019), the longest-serving White House Chief of Staff in Trump's presidency.[2]
  • Late Friday night, the former president of the United States—and a leading candidate to be the next president—insinuated that America's top general deserves to be put to death.
    That extraordinary sentence would be unthinkable in any other rich democracy. But Donald Trump, on his social-media network, Truth Social, wrote that Mark Milley's phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was "an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH." (The phone call was, in fact, explicitly authorized by Trump-administration officials.) Trump’s threats against Milley came after The Atlantic‍'‍s publication of a profile of Milley, by this magazine's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who detailed the ways in which Milley attempted to protect the Constitution from Trump.
  • General Mark Milley is a big boy. When he isn’t selling out America to the Chinese, lying about the murder of random Afghan civilians, and undermining the elected president of the United States, it is clear the man enjoys a lap or two (or three) around the nearest all-you-can-eat buffet.
  • Mark Milley, obviously, is not in regulations for either physical fitness or height and weight. That matters. As Milley himself said in 2018: “‘If [soldiers] can’t get in shape in 24 months, then maybe you should hit the road.’” I agree!
  • Mark Milley, who led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, costing many lives, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, and handing over BILLIONS of dollars of the finest military equipment ever made, will be leaving the military next week. This will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate! This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!
  • Milley continued to be hounded by the events of June 1. His critics were everywhere: on cable news channels, on social media, on op-ed pages. Milley understood the ridicule. He had been photographed in battle fatigues alongside a president who was intent on politicizing the military. It was a fiasco. He called many of his predecessors to seek advice. "Should I resign?" he asked Colin Powell, who had been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. "Fuck no!" Powell said. "I told you never to take the job. You should never have taken the job. Trump's a fucking maniac." Milley received similar, although less colorful, advice from a dozen former secretaries of defense and former chairmen. Milley decided to apologize publicly but did not give Trump advance warning... Several days later, Trump stopped Milley after a routine meeting in the Oval Office. "Hey, aren't you proud of walking with your president?" Trump asked. "To the church?" Milley asked. Yes, Trump said. "Why did you apologize?" "Mr. President, it's got nothing to do with you actually." Trump looked skeptical. "It had to do with me," Milley said. "It had to do with this uniform. Had to do with the traditions of the United States military and that we are an apolitical organization.
    "You're a politician," Milley said. "You're a political actor. For you to do it, that's your call. But I cannot be part of political events, Mr. President. It's one of our long-standing traditions." "Why did you apologize?" the president asked again. "That's a sign of weakness." "Mr. President," he said, looking directly at Trump, "not where I come from." He was a Boston-area native. "Where I was born and how I was raised is when you make a mistake, you admit it." Trump tilted his head to the side like the Victrola Dog, the small dog famously pictured staring at a windup phonograph and long used by RCA Records as a mascot. "Hmm," he said. "Okay."
    • Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 106-107
  • Trump later called Milley twice to inquire about how the military should deal with the issue of Confederate flags, statues and military bases named after Confederate generals. Milley said he favored making changes. During an Oval Office meeting, Trump returned to the issue. He said he did not want a change. "We're not going to ban Confederate flags. It's Southern pride and heritage." Meadows said that the Confederate flags should not be banned. It was a freedom of speech issue, and the Pentagon lawyers agreed with him. Trump asked Milley, what do you think? "I've already told you twice, Mr. President. Are you sure you want to hear it again?" Yeah, go ahead, Trump said. "Mr. President," Milley said, "I think you should ban the flags, change the names of bases, and take down the statues." He continued, "I'm from Boston, these guys were traitors." Someone asked, what about the Confederate dead buried at Arlington National Cemetery? "Interestingly," Milley said of the nearly 500 Confederate soldiers buried there, "they're arranged in a circle and the names on the gravestones are facing inward, and that symbolizes that they turned their back on the Union. They were traitors at the time, they are traitors today, and they're traitors in death for all of eternity. Change the names, Mr. President." There was brief silence in the Oval Office. Pence, who almost always took the super-serious path supporting Trump, half-joked, "I think I just found my Union self." Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, added, "I'm a Yankee, too!" Without saying anything, Trump jumped to the next topic that came to mind.
    • Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, hardcover, p. 107-108
  • Across the Potomac River at Quarters 6, inside his second-floor, top secret Sensitive Compartmented Information facility, surrounded by multiple secure video screens connected to the White House and the world, Chairman Milley was still trying to sort out the meaning of the January 6 riot... The conventional wisdom, which had settled into Washington, was that there had been warnings. But Milley knew the internet chatter lacked coherence and did not provide the specific, credible intelligence that could avert a catastrophe. It had been a grave U.S. intelligence failure, comparable to the missed warnings prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and to Pearl Harbor, and exposed glaring gaps and weaknesses in the American system. What did Milley and others miss? What did they not understand? Milley, ever the historian, thought of the little remembered 1905 revolution in Russia. The uprising had failed, but it had set the stage for the successful 1917 revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the 1917 revolution, had later called the 1905 revolution "The Great Dress Rehearsal." Had January 6 been a dress rehearsal?
    • Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, hardcover, p. 415-416
  • Milley knew that history moves slowly but then often without warning lurches suddenly forward so it seemed impossible to stop. Whether the country was witnessing the end of Trump or the next phase of Trump would only be known in retrospect. Trump was not dormant. He was out holding campaign-style rallies across the country in the summer of 2021. More than 10,000 people in Trump hats and waving signs that read "Save America!" attended his June 26 rally in Wellington, Ohio. "We didn't lose. We didn't lose. We didn't lose," Trump told the crowd. "Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!" they roared. "We won the election twice!" Trump said. This was the latest way to claim he had beaten Biden. The crowd erupted. "And it's possible we'll have to win it a third time." About 90 minutes into the rally, Trump whipped them up again. This was not farewell. "We will not bend," Trump said, adopting a Churchillian cadence. It was a war speech. "We will not break. We will not yield. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. We will never, ever surrender. My fellow Americans, our movement is far from over. In fact, our fight has only just begun." Milley wondered, was this just Trump's desire to project strength? Or a desire for absolute power?
    • Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (2021), New York: Simon & Schuster, hardcover, p. 416
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