The United States as Rome 

Trump is comparable to Julius Caesar in many ways, and America comparable to Rome. Though they differed— Caesar declared himself dictator of Rome, and Trump not only ceded power on January 20th, but would never have been allowed to maintain it— Caesar was characterized as a threat to the Republic’s democracy by politicians and insiders. But when those insiders assassinated him, they were shocked to discover that the lower and middle classes were outraged, as they benefited from his policies. What ensued was a bloody civil war in the quest for power. And on began the Fall of Rome. 

Donald Trump As Caesar

Donald Trump was always too American for American politics. He was the “paleo” and the “populist” that conservatism needed to end the decades long era of elitism and globalism ushered in by both political aisles. He was a perfect martyr that unveiled the obvious, but unspoken truth of our politics: that both sides of Congress are pigs and whores.

America is Roman in a lot of ways. In the end, it was not the Vandals, but Rome who burned it all down. And now America’s people are stuck between two wolves with different colored fur, but wolves with all the same urges: to serve and to conquer power. 

This is why exposing their corruption is so important. Moral principle is mostly conservative because, stripped of radical right wing jargon, conservatives simply believe in American values, which includes putting the nation’s interests and its people first. Everybody else has other plans. 

Milley As Brutus 

This appears to be the case with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Mark Milley. He is currently the most senior leader in the Department of Defense that advises numerous entities of the government, including the President. 

This year, he has been at the receiving end of criticism after coming out in support of critical race theory and showing his ideological stripes when he touted the so-called insurrection of January 6th as being caused by “white rage.” His ideological disposition did not end there, which would be considered unproblematic in light of new claims against him. 

Bob Woodwood’s new book, “Peril”, co-written by Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, is based on more than 200 interviews with firsthand witnesses, according to CNN. It focuses on the transition between the Trump and Biden Administration. In the book, General Milley is said to have made secret phone calls to China before the November 2020 election. He’s reported to have phoned Chinese General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, saying that the U.S. will not strike them.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley allegedly said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” 

“General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” he said, according to the book.

In a statement issued by Trump, he wrote:

If true, Milley’s communication is a betrayal of trust to the sovereign entity one is, under oath, committed to. Critics of Milley are calling this treason. 

According to Woodward, Milley was concerned that Trump was out of control and could “go rogue.” On January 8th, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to Milley, expressing her own concerns over the nuclear codes. “What I’m saying to you is that if they couldn’t even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?”

Milley agreed with her, responding, “Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything.”

As General Milley was anxious over what he thought of Trump, he ensured that he had loyalty from military service chiefs, CIA, National Security Agency, and National Military Command Center, demanding from them that he was a part of every decision. “No matter what you are told, you do the procedure,” he said. “You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.” 

According to the book, “Milley was overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.”

“Some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,” they wrote, but said the chairman believed his actions were “a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons” as Milley “felt no absolute certainty that the military could control or trust Trump.” 

On January 8th, Milley again, in a phone call unbeknownst to Trump, promised Gen. Li that, “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” 

“Democracy can be sloppy sometimes,” Milley told a Chinese General. Ironically, at this time of pending election lawsuits, it’s likely Trump would have agreed. 

Afghanistan

Milley was also critical when he apparently discovered Trump signed a military order ordering the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by January 15th. This contradicts President Biden’s comments when defending the decision to remove U.S. troops, mentioning Trump’s plan to effectively withdraw troops with May 1st as the deadline. 

We know that as Biden has defended his decision for a withdrawal, he casted partial blame on Trump. 

“My predecessor, the former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove US troops May 1, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative government arrangement with the Afghan government,” Biden said.

“But it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban’s top war commanders, among those that just took control of Afghanistan. By the time I came into office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001.” 

Claims that the agreement between Trump and the Taliban did not involve the Taliban to reach a deal with the Afghan government was also a lie. The agreement states: 

“…the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United

States as a state and is known as the Taliban will start intra-Afghan negotiations with Afghan sides on March 10, 2020.” 

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump explains how he would’ve handled the situation in Afghanistan. 

Regardless of the speculation and hindsight on how withdrawal could have been handled, the Biden Administration both lied about, and abandoned Americans in, Afghanistan. In July, President Biden said that a Taliban takeover was extremely unlikely. Then, Biden claimed that U.S. troops will stay, even past the deadline, to ensure Americans made it out. That was also a lie. Americans were left in Afghanistan, with the Secretary of State claiming that the Taliban were blocking departure. According to Brietbart, Pineapple Express, a network of special operations veterans, eventually “came together to evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies.” 

General Milley also exhibited failure in his ability to lead. Biden claimed that the military advised him to close Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, that the Afghan Army would hold. This demands accountability, especially for the General who demanded that he be a part of “every decision.” 

Earlier in August, U.S. intelligence claimed that the Taliban could take over in just 90 days; though that proved to be much quicker, in light of this information, who is to be held accountable for this situation, for the Americans stranded, and the billions of dollars in weapons given to the Taliban? 

Milley as a Manchurian Candidate: A Celebrated Betrayal

Bob Woodward has been a controversial investigative journalist, most notably known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal. As of recent, he’s been accused of writing “anti-Trump” books, with his book, Rage, deliberately set to be published before the 2020 Election. 

General Milley has yet to comment on Woodward’s new book, Peril. Marco Rubio, on Fox News’ Hannity, stated that he hopes these allegations are a lie. He also said that if General Milley denies these allegations then Woodward needs to produce evidence to back up his story. 

“I want everybody to understand, look, you don’t have to like Donald Trump to be concerned about this, okay. You have a—the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a military leader, basically ignoring the Constitution, deciding he’s going to call a potential adversary and an enemy of the United States and collude with them and tell them, ‘if I’m ever ordered to do something, I’m going to tell you about it first, and also break the chain of command when it comes to the nuclear codes of this country and its control.’

“I honestly hope that tomorrow we’re going to have a statement from Gen. Milley saying this is an absolute lie. This never happened. Because the alternative is we basically now live in a country where a general can decide, ‘I don’t like what a president’s doing, I don’t think a president is in his right mind, I’m going to ignore his warning and I’m going to collude with our potential enemies to prevent our president, elected by the people, from taking action;’ which, by the way, in this case, there’s no sign that that action he was trying to prevent was ever going to happen. 

“Imagine if tomorrow, Gen. Milley decides ‘I think Joe Biden is senile, and so, you know what, I’m not going to follow his orders. I’m going to collude with Russia and China to prevent us from acting.’ … It is the essence [of] a military coup, for lack of a better term. That’s what it would equate to.”

In Woodward’s book, Rage, he claimed that the U.S. is working on a new secret nuclear weapons system. In September 2020, Zhao Lijian, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson for China commented on this saying:

“Equipped with the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal, the US not only goes against international consensus and refuses to fulfill its special and primary responsibilities in nuclear disarmament, but also pursues a regressive agenda dominated by Cold War mentality and major power rivalry, willfully withdraws from treaties and organizations, and vigorously strengthens nuclear build-up. Such practices severely undermine strategic mutual trust and heighten nuclear risks.” 

If Mark Milley is in communication with the top brass of the People’s Republic of China’s (PCR) Liberation Army, and if Milley has exchanged secret communications with these forces for the purpose of shielding off “conflict,” and if Milley was responsible, in part, for the U.S. decision to end the mission in Afghanistan prematurely, then did Mark Milley have insider knowledge on how an end of the American mission would benefit the “circling of wagons” for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) 2021 Summit? 

The United States, for all of its justice, has a way of masquerading the truth behind such questions, leaving them as nothing but speculation. But they are important questions for any honest journalist to ask, again, if the allegations against General Milley are proven indisputably true. If they are, that would make Milley a “manchurian.” 

A Manchurian candidate is someone who is being used as a political puppet by an enemy power, indicating disloyalty or corruption, intentional or unintentional. The term comes from a 1959 political thriller by Richard Condon, in which a U.S. soldier was captured during the Korean war and brainwashed by Chinese and Soviet Communists. 

In this case, Milley would be considered a double-manchurian. On the one hand, he intentionally subverted the office of the President, going behind his back ensure loyalty from other agencies. On the other hand, he colluded with a foreign government official, promising to inform him of any “attack.”

Some have taken to social media to praise Milley, primarily because their hatred for Trump overrides their sense of how distressing this all might be for the United States. 

Many hold the view that Trump was “unfit,” “erratic,” and “dangerous,” much like how some viewed Julius Caesar. However, is setting the precedent of betraying the confidence of one’s country, for whatever reason, justified? If one thinks that the answer is yes, then it wouldn’t be China, or any other foreign adversary, that burns America down, but America herself.   

Update: Pentagon Confirms Phone Calls 

Joint Staff Spokesperson confirmed the allegations in a statement:

“His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability. All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.”