US military chief General Mark Milley doesn't agree with his commander-in-chief

Not for the first time, the most serious-looking man in the whole of the United States, General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made his view clear about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Or to be more precise, he has made his view clear about where the virus did not originate from. With that steely face of his, he told Pentagon reporters that there was no evidence at all that the virus had slipped out of the Wuhan institute of Virology, accidentally or deliberately. He said he believed - and that's obviously from looking at all the available covert and overt intelligence - that the virus was formed naturally. ie it's Nature or more specifically bats responsible. So if Milley who sees the same intelligence as the president and the secretary of state is convinced it was a natural phenomenon and had nothing to do with the said institute, how can Trump and, even more, Mike Pompeo, go on and on about how the Chinese research laboratories in Wuhan lie at the heart of the pandemic? The answer, of course, is easy. General Milley is an apolitical military man who speaks the truth as he, a four-star general, sees it, unmixed with any other considerations. If you ask General Milley whether China can be trusted, he will reply that that's above his pay grade - the military love saying that - and that the answer to that question shuld be relayed to the state department which deals with diplomatic stuff. So, asked if there is any evidence that the virus came from the Wuhan institute Milley replies in a straightforward way. No evidence that he has seen. But Trump and Pompeo look at the evidence or lack of it but then add a big political twist mixed with a hint that there is intelligence out there which perhaps even Milley hasn't seen. Milley doesn't do politics. Trump and Pompeo live politics. I think most people will probably understand that. What it's all about of course is finding someone to blame. The Chinese are doing their best to reverse the pointing finger, claiming that US Army athletes who took part in the 2019 Wuhan military games October 18-27 brought the virus over from the US, also from a secret laboratory, and that's how it started. Remember, the first "evidence" of a coronavirus case was on November 17 in Wuhan, so I think that bit of Beijing propaganda can be dismissed out of hand - the US athletes had left three weeks before - and anyway if an American athlete took part in the games suffering from coronavirus symptoms woulnd't that have been spotted by the US medical team, let alone by the athlete himself? So I remain totally sceptical about both sides' propaganda allegations and prefer to stick with my friend General Milley. He's not my friend obviously but if he was I would encourage him to look less desperately stern and tense when seen in public, although I fully appreciate he has a very very serious job.