'That's not our job': Milley delivers a brutal reality check when Tom Cotton asks why he didn't resign over Afghanistan

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley did not mince words when he responded to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Tenn.) asking why he did not resign following the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

During a Tuesday Senate hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal, Cotton insisted that he understands Milley is considered the principal military advisor and decisions are ultimately left up to President Joe Biden. However, he proceeded to ask anyway why Milley did not resign when his suggestions were dismissed by the president. Milley had a firm response.

"As a senior military officer, resigning is a really serious thing and it's a political act if I'm resigning in protest. My job is to provide legal advice or best military advice to the president," Milley explained.

Milley said it would be unacceptable to resign simply because of a difference in opinion. He continued, "The president doesn't have to agree with that advice. He doesn't have to make those decisions just because we're generals and it would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken."

He later added, "This country doesn't want generals figuring out what orders we are going to accept and do or not. That's not our job. The principle of being in control of the military is absolute.

"If the orders are illegal, then we're in a different place," he added. "But if the orders are legal from surveying authority, I intend to carry them out."