Mark Milley’s 65-year tenure as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Armed Forces ends today. The general, who first took office during Donald Trump’s term in office, was linked to one of the former president’s most controversial moments, when he left the White House during demonstrations against racism and police brutality, accompanied by several top officials, including Milley. , to handle a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had been vandalized the night before. The events took place after the murder of George Floyd, a moment so disturbing that it prompted the discreet Charles Brown, Milley’s successor, to speak out on social media at the time about the racism rooted in the institutions.
Milley says goodbye with more medals on her chest. This time they are symbolic: Republican Rep. Paul Gosar said the general “should be hanged” and the former president said, in his own style, that “in days gone by Milley would have been punished with death.” Gone are the days when the general was associated with Trump, when he took the five-minute walk from the White House to Lafayette Park with the president on June 1, 2020, shortly after police forcibly swept a street. for Donald Trump to show off a copy of the scriptures.
Days later, the grandson and son of military personnel – his paternal grandfather fought in Europe during World War I, his father served in the Navy during World War II after serving in the Pacific, and his mother was also a nurse in the When the Allies fought the Axis powers, the Navy showed remorse. “I should not have been there. My presence at that time and in that environment created a perception of military involvement in internal politics.”
As a military officer at the top of the hierarchy and inherently the president’s top adviser on military matters, he also had to deal with the end of Trump’s term after refusing to concede that he had lost the 2020 election. Trump attacked the Capitol, then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi expressed concern about the possibility that an unbalanced head of state would order a nuclear attack. This prompted Milley to speak to the officials formally involved in such a procedure to ensure they would follow the rules, he shared with members of Congress months later.
Also on that occasion, he considered himself the “lightning rod for the politicization of the armed forces”, which earned him criticism from the most radical republican sector. In fact, polarization in North American politics was responsible for the delay in naming his successor. Brown was nominated by Joe Biden in May, but Senator Tommy Tuberville delayed the nomination citing a side issue opposing the Pentagon’s policy of subsidizing travel for women in the armed forces to obtain abortions.
The situation only came to light last week with an individual vote – normally officer appointments are approved jointly and unanimously – but another 300 officers are awaiting confirmation.
If Milley had a career in the military, Brown is an Air Force soldier with a resume of three thousand flight hours, including combat missions, and commander of an F-16. Regarded by Biden as a “staunch patriot,” Brown was the first African American to lead any branch of the armed forces and is the second, after Colin Powell, to reach the top of the hierarchy.
The man who retires today also had the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine as his main challenges. Regarding the latter, analysts believe that he developed a close relationship with his Ukrainian counterpart, Valery Zaluzhny, although he defended a cautious policy in the supply of advanced equipment to Kiev, either to avoid causing Russia to make a disproportionate response either to ensure that his country is not left without responsiveness, to the despair of the Ukrainians.
And what about you afterwards? “The military challenge facing General Brown is … how do you provide training, information and military assistance to try to shift the balance in favor of Ukraine, and is that possible?” said Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and Economic Studies International. , based in Washington. Basically the challenge is the same.
Source: DN
