Whose side are generals on? As Joint Chiefs chairman APOLOGIZES for standing by Trump, Biden confident of military support

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is ‘absolutely convinced’ that the military would be on his side if President Donald Trump tries to ‘steal the election’ or refuses to leave the White House. He has reasons to be.

Biden’s “single greatest concern” is that Trump is “going to try to steal this election,” he told the Daily Show host Trevor Noah in a video interview published on Thursday morning.

He could not hide his pleasure with the fact that several former and current military officials have spoken out against the president recently, adding that he was “absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch” if Trump loses the election but refuses to concede.

It is tempting to wave off Biden’s claims about Trump “stealing” the election and refusing to abide by the results as a rehash of Hillary Clinton’s identical “argument” from 2016, when she lost and then proceeded to do just what she accused Trump of.

Whether that’s properly called projection or flipping the script, however, the country just went through four years of ‘Russiagate’ insanity as a result of Democrats and the media indulging that fantasy. 

They’re doing it again, too. Notice how Biden’s claims about Trump were not described as “baseless,” or “without evidence,” or any of the phrases the media routinely use to “fact-check” Trump’s opinions they dislike. The talking point was simply accepted as gospel truth, no evidence required.

You might also recall that it was the media and the Democrats who howled about Trump’s “dictatorial” militarization of America when he called up the National Guard and active duty troops as rioting threatened to get out of hand just last week. Never mind that he didn’t actually deploy the troops, or invoke the Insurrection Act. Note, however, that Biden just insinuated that the “apolitical” military is actually in his corner. 

Not without reason, either. His comments came shortly after a video emerged of Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologizing for standing by the president at Lafayette Square last week.

“I should not have been there,” said Milley, in a pre-recorded speech to graduates of the National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” he added. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

One would have to be both blind and stupid not to see that Milley’s apology actually created a perception of military involvement in domestic politics. Journalist Yamiche Alcindor framed it as proof that “leaders of the military are rhetorically breaking in the most public way possible with their commander in chief.”

Former Obama ethics czar turned Resistance activist Walter Shaub described it as a “firm declaration that the military is not Trump's plaything. Before this is over, Trump is going to force the military to choose between him and America. Milley is telling the generals to choose America.” And so on, et cetera.

Last week, the media did their best to paint Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s comments about there being no need for troops as “defying” Trump. Much was also made of the ritualistic denunciations of Trump by former generals and admirals – including Esper’s predecessor Jim Mattis – on the pages of the Atlantic, a liberal flagship  magazine. Mattis specifically accused the military of violating Americans’ constitutional rights in Lafayette Square for “a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.” It isn’t hard to read Milley’s words as a direct response to this.

This open meddling of current and former military officers into civilian politics – under the guise of opposing the alleged politicization of the military by Trump, of course – just so happens to be a key element of “color revolution” tactics, as pointed out by the Atlantic’s own Franklin Foer, who wrote about this phenomenon approvingly.

Foer and others praising the “color revolution” model were very careful not to mention that it is a “template for winning other people’s elections,” and “engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience,” first developed for regime change in Serbia 20 years ago, as the Guardian once described it.

Think of that when you ponder why Biden – who can’t remember what office he’s running for on any given day – is so “absolutely convinced” the military will be in his corner come November.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.