Christopher C. Miller

Miller's first overseas trip occurred in the third week of November when he visited multiple military units in the Middle East and Africa to include a three-hour stopover in Mogadishu. Miller said that in addition to meeting senior military and foreign officials, he wanted to visit troops on the Thanksgiving holiday.[33]

In November of 2020, the political acting leadership of the Pentagon ordered withdrawals of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia against the advice of U.S. military commanders. [34] [35] [36] Some were critical of the decision with one group calling it "11th hour of President Donald Trump’s administration, risk serious harm to hard-fought counterterrorism gains and American safety. With these recent moves, Miller appears to be disregarding important lessons about terrorists’ resilience and the value of partnerships when conducting counterterrorism, while embracing a politically expedient but strategically nonsensical notion of “ending forever wars” to appease the president during his final weeks in office." [37] They also pointed to the inconsistency in Miller's message where he claimed that the United States is “on the verge of defeating al-Qa’ida” and noted the need to avoid “our past strategic error of failing to see the fight through to the finish,” while also making the audacious statement that “Now, it’s time to come home.” [37]

In December 2020, it was reported that Miller had ordered the Pentagon to postpone 40 meetings with the incoming Joe Biden administration.[38][39] Miller said that this was a "mutually agreed-upon holiday pause" with the Biden transition, but the Biden transition team said no such agreement had been made.[32] Miller's decision to halt cooperation with the incoming administration came in the wake of President Donald Trump's refusal to concede in the election, refusals by various Trump administration political appointees to cooperate, and claims of fraud by the Trump administration.[38][39][32]

On January 3, 2021, all ten living former defense secretaries raised alarm in an open letter against a military coup to overturn the election results, warning officials who would participate and specifically naming Miller, that they would face grave consequences if they violated the constitution.[40]

In a January 4 memo, Miller prohibited deploying D.C. Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents without his personal approval.[41] On January 5, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy issued a memo placing limits on the District of Columbia National Guard.[41] Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the commanding general of the DC National Guard, later explained: "All military commanders normally have immediate response authority to protect property, life, and in my case, federal functions — federal property and life. But in this instance I did not have that authority." [41]

In a January 14 interview, Miller made a number of inflammatory statements that "raised eyebrows" among the National Security press.[42][43] Miller praised Russia's capabilities, saying "professionally I’m like, wow, they’re doing pretty well, and they’re using a lot of irregular warfare concepts, information, all this stuff, in a way that, you know, like... good on them."

Miller openly derided major Pentagon programs and strategies and declared that he could "not wait to leave the job." He derided the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter[44] and criticized efforts to develop 5th and emerging 6th generation fighter aircraft:[42][45] He ended his comments with criticism of Department of Defense efforts to modernize innovation and acquisitions opining "a lot of people just want to continue doing the same old thing again and again. I think that’s the definition of insanity, isn’t it? Oh, did I say that out loud?"[43] [46]