After four years in office, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley was replaced yesterday by Air Force General Charles Q. Brown. US President Joe Biden honored the services of the outgoing Chief of Staff in a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in the Washington area.
The 65-year-old Army general is a “patriot, uncompromising in the exercise of his duty, fearless in the face of danger and steadfast in his service to the country”. Milley used his farewell speech to attack his former boss Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor in the White House. “We do not take an oath before a king, queen, tyrant or dictator,” he said. “We also do not take an oath before a would-be dictator.” American soldiers would take an oath to the Constitution.
New Chief of Staff Brown was also sworn in at the ceremony. The current Chief of Staff of the US Air Force is the second African-American to hold the position of top US military officer, after Colin Powell (1989 to 1993).
Turbulent possession
Milley was named chief of staff by Trump in 2019. Tensions arose when Trump refused to acknowledge his election defeat against Biden in late 2020. Following the storming of the US Capitol by radical Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, Milley contacted his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the US was “stable” and would not attack China, as investigative journalist Bob Woodward later revealed.
Trump attacked Milley for this, recently declaring it a “treason” that in earlier times would have been punishable by “death.” Under President Biden, Milley had to coordinate the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 and, later, military support for Ukraine in the war against Russia.