“believe Woodward or believe Milley really did what Woodward says he did?”
Woodward has nothing but speculation and is a journalistic hack. But I can do better than that. Here is how the process is done for the military chiefs of staff as per Col Dave Butler:
“All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense” as well as the U.S. security and intelligence community’s interagency pipeline, Butler said.”
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037454733/milley-defends-call-to-chinese-general-about-trump
So the calls, part of his job, were like every call like it witnessed and recorded. That’s a lot more than Woodward did with his unnamed 200 witnesses that I’ll bet have no idea what happened.
Who I believe is not a problem,. Who the public is believing is closer to the toss up. And there is no question in my mind how it happened. He never could have gotten away with it the way Woodward spun it.
wy69
Now doubt Woodward is not reliable and will cut and paste into his narrative as he sees fit.
However, in reference to the protocols involved as per “Col Dave Butler”, it leaves out the chief principal, the POTUS, as if that office would not be “in the loop” about such a call, and of equal importance about the “intelligence” “cause” of the call, according to the NPR’s description of the necessity of the call.
If all that were true, it is Trump who needed to be informed that the CCP was getting concerned, and if any call was needed to be made to Li, it needed to come from Trump directly, not anyone under Trump at the DOD. For the DOD to take such a matter into their own hands ONLY suggests that in the interim THEY may be in charge, not the POTUS. THAT IS a violation of our Constitutional civilian control of and authority over the military. THEY are NEVER to be or think they are in command, not even between elections and election results.
To me the DOD “defense” of Milley and the NPR description of how many outside of Trump were involved, then the entire high command was violating their oath of office. The entire episode, about the Chinese concerns as the excuse for Milley’s call, if true, was a matter FOR Trump to know, not a matter to be kept from Trump and handled without him.