yankees60 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 8:39 am
https://www.c-span.org/video/?525871-3/ ... -secretary
FEBRUARY 19, 2023 | PART OF WASHINGTON JOURNAL 02/19/2023
Washington Journal
Christopher Miller on His Book, Soldier Secretary
Former Trump Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller discusses his book “Soldier Secretary” about his military career and the final, tumultuous days of the Trump presidency and the January 6th attack.
DEFENSE
Trump’s last Defense secretary takes on the ‘American war machine’
BY BRAD DRESS - 02/09/23 6:00 AM ET
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3850 ... r-machine/
“The more I thought, the more I was horrified,” Miller writes in “Soldier Secretary,” a memoir released this week. “We invaded a sovereign nation, killed and maimed a lot of Iraqis, and lost some of the greatest American patriots to ever live — all for a goddamned lie.”
“Soldier Secretary” offers an insight into the life of an American soldier who rose — briefly — to the top of the Pentagon as he grew increasingly resentful of the U.S. military-industrial complex, which he writes has now become a “hydra-headed monster” with “virtually no brakes on the American war machine.”
Still, Miller is hopeful that the next generation of Americans can shake the U.S. out of foreign entanglements and the idea of policing the rest of the world.
In an interview with The Hill, Miller said there is a pressing need for accountability in the upper ranks of the Pentagon and with military leadership for the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“That really bothers me. Our young soldiers see the hypocrisy in that … if they end up being late for work, they get in a lot of trouble. Or let’s say they mess up a piece of paperwork for a supply request, there’s a possibility they can be kicked out of the service,” he said.
“And then there’s the people who lose wars and end up advancing on to other positions of power and wealth,” Miller adds. “And that’s what really bugs me.”
It was during his next assignment to Iraq that the seeds of doubt about the U.S. military-industrial complex began sprouting.
“The recognition that so many sacrifices were ultimately made in the service of a lie, as in Iraq, or to further a delusion, as in the neoconservatives’ utopian fantasy of a democratic Middle East,” he writes. “It still makes my blood boil, and it probably will until the day I die.”
By the end of his last tour in Iraq, from 2006 to 2007, Miller had grown distrustful of the military establishment: the Defense Department, defense contractors, Democrats, Republicans, think tanks. Even the mainstream media is often “cheering on American missile strikes and urging greater involvement in conflicts America has no business fighting,” he writes.
This non-engagement worldview can seem out of step with the current threats posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s increasing belligerence toward Taiwan.
But Miller says the U.S. should combat foreign adversaries through irregular warfare, a military strategy designed around intelligence and winning the loyalty or cooperation of local populations.
“We’re doing the same old thing again and the world situation has changed,” Miller says. “Instead of doing what they want us to do and expect us to do, which plays into their hands, I want us to be more sophisticated. Maybe not take the bait every time.”
The career military man takes a notably both-sides view of the growing partisanship that defines American politics. He writes that culture wars are “splitting Americans into warring factions” and empowering China and Russia, but doesn’t place particular blame on either party.
How does Miller propose to overcome this?
For one, require every American to serve with the AmeriCorps program to bring citizens together, with the option to serve through the military or an agency like the National Park Service. Two, secure the border with military force to stop cartels from flooding American streets with illicit drugs. And three, upgrade the nation’s nuclear arsenal to serve as a deterrence.
Miller also offers a series of reforms to the military, from holding military leaders accountable to creating a leaner and more nimble fighting force to slashing the Pentagon’s nearly trillion-dollar budget in half.
House Republicans have tabled defense cuts as part of negotiations over the debt ceiling, but largely focused on “woke” programs like diversity training that make up a tiny fraction of overall spending.
Progressive lawmakers have long been critical of bloated defense spending, but Miller doesn’t think Congress is quite ready to meet in the middle anytime soon.
“There’s no incentive to reduce military spending,” he says. “I think there’s whispers, but [we need] someone with the courage and experience to get in there and force it.”
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