The United States has been blessed to count some of the greatest military leaders in history among its generals.
George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower and even Robert E. Lee have gone down in history for their remarkable leadership and strategic and tactical brilliance in the most trying times of our history.
Retired Gen. Mark Milley is, alas, not one of their illustrious rank.
Although, based on how he’s enjoying his retirement, some seem to be unaware of that fact.
The Intercept reported Monday that Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is “cashing in” on his retirement by going on a lucrative speaking tour, joining the faculty of Princeton and Georgetown universities and enjoying a well-compensated advisory position with JPMorgan Chase Bank.
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According to the report, while Milley’s salary as an Army general was capped at $204,000 a year (still a substantial amount), he is now “sure to skyrocket to compensation in the millions.”
As The Daily Caller noted, his speaking tour is being handled by the Harry Walker Agency, which also represented former first lady Hillary Clinton when she was paid $200,000 per speech.
“Cashing in” refers to the phenomenon common to retired generals where, after having their salary capped during active service, upon retirement they can leverage their accomplishments to earn far more than they ever did in the service.
The only problem here is Milley doesn’t have much in the way of accomplishments, at least not when compared with many of his illustrious predecessors.
Will Milley be remembered positively in history?
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And the accomplishments he does have don’t reflect all that well on his leadership skills.
For one, while most generals refrain from getting overtly political, Milley was a vocal critic and antagonist of former President Donald Trump, saying in his farewell address in September, “We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” an apparent reference to the man who appointed him to his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
For another, Milley called his Chinese counterpart — Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army — just days before the 2020 presidential election to conspire against Trump, according to a book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post.
They wrote in “Peril” that during the call, Milley said, “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.”
Finally, from 2021 to 2023, Milley was an enthusiastic propagator of President Joe Biden’s quest to remake the military in the image of the woke left, defending the teaching of critical race theory to our soldiers with an inane comment about “white rage.”
And that’s without even mentioning his military failures.
Milley was the one who oversaw our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a debacle that stranded thousands of ordinary Americans, left behind more than $7 billion in U.S. military equipment and, worst of all, resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemen and women.
Clearly, then, Milley is no Patton or Eisenhower.
From overseeing the progressive transformation of the military into a vehicle for DEI propaganda to allowing military training to take a backseat to politics, Milley doesn’t have much in his later career justifying his exorbitant speaking fees and cushy advisory positions.
Men like Milley should be seen as a cautionary tale and warning sign, not rewarded, glorified and paraded about on speaking tours.
If we allow this woke refashioning of our military to continue, we will not be prepared for the next real conflict that comes our way.
And no amount of virtue signaling will protect you if that happens.
