ROGER KIMBALL: The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Milley.

Milley, like Sun Tzu, goes beyond strictly military themes into realms sociological, psychological, and political. “You cannot betray the one to which you were never loyal.” This obviously is an insight that has wide application, as pertinent in business as in warfare proper. Ditto Milley’s postmodern revision of JFK’s famous saying: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for China.”

Finally, General Milley’s art of war has a pragmatic commercial side, as can be seen in such observations as “He who turns on a bad orange man gets a big book deal.” Has any fortune cookie ever contained greater wisdom?

“But that’s all satire, parody!” you object. “It’s from the Babylon Bee, not any real book written by Mark Milley.”

You’re right about that and I apologize for the imposition.

I also note that it is effective satire. Why? What makes it effective? Its close proximity to the truth. Mark Milley would never advise a military leader to “pick up the phone” and call one’s enemy to alert him to a forthcoming attack. No, no. General Milley is a man of action. He does not write about such things. He actually does them. He actually called his counterpart in China, twice, to assure him that, should the United States be planning an attack, he, Mark Milley, would be sure to let him know in advance. What a guy!

Related: Fire the military and intelligence bigs who bungled Afghanistan — now.