So, apparently the author of this article works for the Pentagon, and was attempting to blow the whistle on US efforts to push towards a war with China. There's a recent Washington Post article about it here.
He also wrote this article shortly before, which is worth a read.
The Pentagon boys have always been regulated by the civilian government. If the civilian government has the same psychosis as the military, it's game over.
Trump was crazy, but he wasn't "let's nuke people" crazy. We saw the limits with Soleimani. That was an example of them finally getting one of their harebrained ideas through.