Military Has No Place in Domestic Politics: Gen. Mark Milley

WASHINGTON, DC (IANS) – Gen Mark Milley, who just retired as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US armed forces, said there is no role for the US Military in domestic politics and its role or duty lies overseas. And the greatest threat to the US is from overseas, and that’s “China”. The Ukraine conflict is the biggest since World War 11.

“So, as I look overseas, I think you have a wide variety of threats. I think China is the single most significant national security challenge to the US, and will remain so for many, many years to come. But the immediate threat right now is clearly this war that’s in Central Europe, with Ukraine and Russia. Russia is a very powerful country. This is the biggest war since World War II,” Milley told the TV program “All Things Considered” in an interview of how the military behaves and takes. 

All Things Considered (ATC) is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). The 1st program aired on NPR, May 3, 1971.

Looking at this way, Milley said: “I think that as a soldier and as a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my primary responsibility is overseas, and anything domestically is a matter of either domestic politics or domestic law enforcement unless deemed otherwise for a specific reason for orders to follow.”

The US military stayed out of actual politics, he said adding, I think that’s an important distinction.

“Marching behind the president, bad optics, bad image, clearly — and I knew that, you know, within 90 seconds, walked away from it, and then later tried to make amends on that.”

But having said that, that is not the same, by the way, as entering politics.

Now, you asked me how close, but there’s no role for the US military there, Milley said that it was a bad decision to march behind former US president Donald Trump during the Lafayette protesters march.

There is no role for the military there, he said to the question: “How close, General Milley, did we come to the American military being deployed against the American people?”

Milley said President Trump was also the Commander in chief of the armed forces of the US and as President he wanted active-duty military in the streets of American cities to suppress the protests.

He very well could have ordered that. He didn’t order it. “So that’s an important distinction as well. So, what I’m telling you is that the military has no role — zero — in actual electoral policy, or politics. So, the active-duty military is a very high bar for deployment on the streets of America.”

“We don’t take an oath to an individual; we don’t take an oath to anything other than the Constitution of the US,” Miley said adding: “Our loyalty, we are duty bound, we are oath bound, to protect and defend the Constitution. And part of that, by the way, is to follow the lawful legal orders of whoever is the elected representative, whether you like the orders or not.”