I wanted to write about the SignalGate scandal – where high-ranking officials not only communicated with each other on a commercially available and unsecured communications network; but that one of the parties included a reporter from The Atlantic into the meeting.
But I needed someone who could speak directly to the dangers this situation caused.
And I knew the perfect someone to address this topic – my son Kris Miller, who served in the military for several years. I asked Kris about his opinions regarding SignalGate, and why what happened in that meeting – and the subsequent release of all the text messages – is so chilling and frightening. His words follow.
When I was in the Army, I worked under a general, so I worked in a higher headquarters aviation unit. I worked from 2006 to 2015.
When I saw the texts that were released to the general public, the first thought that went through my mind is that these messages could put our pilots in danger. We have secondary people who participate in different aspects of battle. And battle plans like these come in waves. So, having those locations visible, and when we have people who have boots on the ground in the area, it’s probably not the most conducive way to, I don’t know, talk about battle plans. This isn’t Risk or Stratego, this is real nations in real battle.
Yeah. Now, they’re using Signal. Signal is as secure as people think. I’ve used Signal. I’ve looked into it. Cell phones in general are not secure entities. You could have certain kind of programs in a cell phone to make it more secure. However, it’s not 100% effective. Most secure items would be satellite phones, or communications in a SCIF (a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). And the communications on those texts – that was a play-by-play of a real rotational battle bombing campaign, which I might say is a completely unwarranted bombing campaign in Yemen. The Middle East already has a high process of being compromised because of how the Arabs talk to each other and how the Americans and Israelis talk to each other. And you’re seeing this with the complete description of before, during, and after.
I have a vast history knowledge base now of the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. With a lot of this, especially with the fact that the Yemenis can shoot down American aircraft, and have done so before, putting something out like these texts out is not only unsafe, but it’s already showing where our movements are. And the fact that it’s now out in the public puts us in jeopardy even more.
We have never won a war that wasn’t on our soil, except for when other countries were from that geographic location to help us, and not even in Vietnam. We did not win Vietnam for the same reason why we didn’t win Iraq, for the same reason we’re likely not going to win in the Middle East, because they have guerrilla-style fighting, and they know their terrain because they are indigenous to the area for 12-plus generations.
Now, as for someone being on the call who should not have been (the reporter from The Atlantic), on top of the fact that Pete Hegseth has a drinking problem, the fact that they’re so brazen, I have a lot of issues with the administration in general, is they are completely not qualified to be in the positions that are held. Being in a communications-level moment, I’ve been in those kind of briefings before, you know, very high-level briefings. Those kind of briefings, you just—they’re not— you don’t talk about them outside— you don’t talk about Fight Club outside of Fight Club, is what’s going on.
But it’s not just the language they’re using, it’s what they’re saying as well. They’re excited about it. This is basically a game for them, right? They think America can’t lose. I think in the year of 2025, we are not in the same industry as 1978 or 1776. So they’re playing war games. A lot of people are pissed off.
As for how that reporter got on the call in the first place, they’re lying like a middle schooler who just got caught. But I guess what I was trying to say is, it’s one thing if that was a reporter and had ethics and didn’t print everything. What if that had been an enemy? Do we even know who our allies are anymore? The fact that Hegseth has a Russian email account should bother anybody to why he has any sort of access. The fact that he has the tattoos that he has, that we could pretend are one thing, but they’re something else. And the fact that as we see what’s going on right now, we have to wonder what is the next step. Who’s ready for war on our soil? Most of us are fat and bumpy. We’re either elderly or homeless or stuck in addiction.
But this is on American soil between American people, so people don’t equate it to that, especially right-wingers. It’s not what really our Constitution is. Most of them won’t read the Constitution, much less interpret it correctly. And when you mix the religious values into it and Nazi Germany and that kind of white supremacy, you will still get the same tactics.
And as for one of the people in the chats texting “I pray for the victims,” what he pray for them for? What are they praying about? Are they praising God? I worry about people when they bring religion into things, because if we’re to bring religion into it, the Lord has told us to not be the barbarians before us. The Lord has told us to love thy neighbor as thyself. The Lord has told us to never, never take brevity or never take, never boast. Never be proud of war. Always, always, always mourn it.
It’s just, people think Jesus died so they can be assholes, and I think people who are white very much have an arrogance about them because they don’t recognize the privileges that are awarded to them, and I think a lot of that comes within our culture. So I think when you talk about people praying for other people, I find it to be extremely disingenuous.
And just let them know at the end, free Palestine. I say free Palestine because let me tell you something, we wouldn’t be bombing Yemen if we didn’t take Palestine in 1948, if we didn’t continue to put people into a concentration camp, if we didn’t use our religion to subjugate other humans in the Middle East.
These are my personal words, and that I am personally Jewish. – Kris Miller
Chuck The Writer 