If reports in a new book that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley had agreed to warn China of an impending act are true, then "we have a large problem," said Blaine Holt, retired Air Force brigadier general and deputy military representative to NATO, told Newsmax.
But the "two words that are most important this morning are 'if true,'" Holt stressed in a panel discussion Wednesday on "Wake Up America."
"If this is true, then we have a large problem. and it gets back to what we have been talking about over these weeks," Holt said. "It's accountability, and if this is true, this is not what we expect of our leadership."
The book, ''Peril,'' by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, alleges that Milley, two days after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, was so concerned about then-President Donald Trump's behavior that he warned senior military officials that he was to be "part of the procedure" for orders on military action, and that he had spoken with a Chinese general to say he'd give notice in the event of orders for a military strike.
According to the book, Milley feared Trump's behavior, and that was magnified by the events of Jan. 6.
"It's to me unconscionable that any anybody in a position of leadership and trust would talk to an adversary ... without coordination with leadership, but certainly it's just it's absolutely not smart on many levels," Holt said.
"And, if you take the material elements of what was said, [that] you're telling an adversary in advance of an invasion, you're committing U.S. forces to potential fatalities simply because you're warning somebody [about] that."
Holt added that he hopes to hear Milley himself address the claims soon.
Meanwhile, former White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley, also part of the panel, told Newsmax that he worked closely with Milley, and finds the reports "scary on a lot of levels."
He also said he understands putting an "if true" disclaimer on the reports, but accused the media of having "never even cared" if something was true or not while Trump was in office.
"They just ran with it," Gidley said. "In this particular instance, I'm going to do the right thing here and say if true, we've got a serious problem with the chain of command."
The mainstream media, though, looks at the reports and says it's "virtuous" for Milley to "tip off our number one global adversary," Gidley said.
"Everyone's upset, and rightfully so, at what we left behind in Afghanistan for the Taliban and al-Qaida," Gidley said. "We left this behind for China, who is now filling the vacuum left behind by the Biden administration. ... The fact is, someone needs to be held accountable for this unbelievable, unprecedented move."
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