General Miley

[Dill]

(09-29-2021, 03:36 PM)hollodero Wrote: So, there's the point that maybe this is actually all routine. I would not dare to state the opposite with total conviction. If it was just routine and actually no big deal, then ok, so be it.
If it was not, however, then I would still believe that it is the president's perogative to deal with foreign nations, including taking a more aggressive stance. If he does so, it's imho in principle kind of essential that no one calls someone from said nation to relativize or undermine these positions. I can clearly see a point at which such a preventive deed is the right move; but that would very much include a realistic scenario that an armed conflict might break out. Anything less than that, I'd still believe that the president's perogative should stand and that someone like Milley is not the person to question it.
Regarding intelligence reports, I of course would not know about those, and I figure neither would you. So it's kinda easy to claim the Chinese had to be heavily concerned and US intelligence possibly reflected that. I have no evidence it did not, nor do I have evidence it did. I just find it somewhat hard to imagine that China could be worried about a possible attack or a possible war, in which case, well done Mr. Milley if you averted the threat of war. If they felt threatened in some other way than with actual armed conflict, then I'd lean towards claiming Milley should not interfere. And I can understand an other perspective on this, I see Trump after all; I just don't believe mine has a wrong starting point or speaks to my confusion.

It isn't the president's "prerogative" to deal with foreign nations so much as Constitutionally defined powers/responsibilities for him, with Congressional oversight. He is the US' #1 representative of state.

However, the US is "dealing" with over 100 nations every day. It is not possible for him to personally manage all that--hence the State Department, among others, with its secretary, undersecretaries, deputies, and many subdepartments--all communicating daily with their thousands of counterparts in other nations.  
 
And then there is the DoD and the intel services, foremost among them the CIA, also dealing with foreign nations.
 
But I get from the bolded above that you still think Milley usurped the president's job somehow, undermined his position or whatever, by calling the Chinese to say Trump was not going to attack. I don't get that. He was working under Esper's direction, right? Who was questioning Trump's "prerogative" here? 
 
Also, today Milley maintained that all these communications with China were in the president's Personal Daily Briefing. Who knows if Trump read them or cared. I tend to believe Milley on that since there is a record of every such PDB which can be checked.
 
Finally, regarding the intel neither of us has seen. We do know Milley claims it existed and no one in the DoD is disputing that it did. I just want to re-iterate here that the call prompted by that intel was not simply a whim of Milley's, but an organized, directed effort conducted and monitored by the DoD, and in which Milley actually had a role subordinate to Esper's.