Milley makes a point of sharing the anecdote of the elderly WWII veteran and his humble request to never let a great war happen again. I completely recognize that our perspective here has changed due to loss of institutional memory, but notable, credible people say failure to provide more materiel, long range weapons and jets to Ukraine makes that great war more likely, not less. Good interview, but I would have liked to have seen more of these contradictions (or at least controversies) addressed.
I love it when a general actually discusses war theory and tactics with lead echelons and terrains. Usually you only get to see them in public forums with rhetoric speeches about valued partners and cooperation.
What an absolute hero of American reality takes, and contemporary analysis, for Our military, and for a unified political perspective, aspiring to survive, with dignity, security, and compassion, for all, of which even the enemies of the American way of life, must consider when tasking for longevity in the policies they embrace.
Curious - at 24:26, what Milley/defense establishment consider the "about 20 other technologies" are. Could certainly venture a few obvious educated guesses, but would be interested some of the ones that might not be on my radar.
You bet, he knows his stuff! He also makes a good point re: the importance of a unified and 'motivated' population like Ukraine, compared to Taiwan, where as much as a quarter of the Taiwanese are still 'ambivalent' (at best) re: the prospect of defending against 'reunification'.
Art thou a prophet... Some notes: "Convergence of technologies… AI + Quantum computing + robotics Combine that with cyber, space… …there’s a lot of things happening undersea. And just like in the past: the country that optimizes those technologies for the conduct of warfare, that country is going to have a decisive advantage at least at the beginning and the opening shots of the next war. I would argue that the future operating environment will be extraordinarily more lethal than that which we’ve seen in the past. Because you can see better, sense the environment better, hit it with precision better, you can probably hit with speed better. Decision in future war will probably occur in highly dense urban areas. Firstest with the mostest! A future force will need to be lots of small entities…constant states of movement in order to survive in a highly lethal environment. Invisible either though technology or basic cover and concealment. A third of that force will need to fundamentally transform in order to outpace…anything that can be thrown at us." "General, never let it happen again."
Great interview. I worry about the US army lately. I’ve been a longtime observer of the US military. I am a total peacenik. All war is a crime. That said, I want my team to have the ability to go toe to toe with any great power and I don’t see us lasting any longer than 6 months if all stupidity breaks out. We just don’t have the stuff we need to grind. It’s a national security crisis. That’s my call and I’m sticking to it.
Wish the discussion was longer and in more detail. Gen Milley asserts that since we have larger cities and more people living in them, a future war will be decided in the streets, but I want to hear this idea explored further. Starting with, what would be the planning objectives of a US-China war for either side? Would it even be necessary to capture and hold most cities? I think maybe not since our cities are more vulnerable than ever to siege tactics due to their huge demand for non-local sources of food and energy. Far more likely that a conventional US-China war would focus first on rapid neutralization of the opponent's kinetic capabilities (C2, airbases, and naval yards, mostly) and second on seizing or denying strategic resources (dams, refineries, railways, commercial ports), with the overall goal of knocking the opposing superpower down a peg on the world stage.
Politics is not general Miley's concern and his task is to plan for battles, train his soldiers and prepare logistics to win a war. He talks too much about politics and diplomacy.
General Milley is a titin of a man, Much Respect for him. I for one think Ukraine would love to have some allies join the fight against Russia. Also Ukraine is not a land locked country. I know what he meant though. Form a Army Generals view Ukraine has like No navy worth mentioning except new drones & it plays a Very small role in the conflict.
I had a moment there when he talked about Russia and China having the ability to hit precise targets from long ranges. Russia might technically have the capability to produce such weapons, but they sure haven't demonstrated that they've done so in anything resembling relevant quantities.
how about a conversation between MARK MILLEY AND DOUGLAS MCGREGOR!??? OR MILLEY AND MEARSCHMEIR! THAT would be a chat for the ages!! Thank You Foreign Affairs.
Gen Milley has clearly thought about this 100 times more than the politicians in our Congress and executive branch. But I heard Scott Ritter say the same for Gen Colin Powell, but Ritter said Powell as honest and honerable as he was still lied to congress about WMDs in Iraq. We have great men and women in our military, not just courage but also wisdom. But our politicians don't listen.
Miłley is a military beaurocrat and don't think he will be a good war-time general. He is way too soft for being the US top soldier, but he will retire soon anyway.
In the Cold War China was a great power (see Foreign Affairs circa late 1980's, the editions were chock full of stories about the Three Great Powers: US, USSR, China). This is a miscalculation and isn't accurate to Chinese history. I hope we aren't communicating this messaging to partners, and more importantly, to the Chinese. Thanks.
Mark needs to understand that the military alliance between Russia and China has happened. If he doesn’t think it happened now then he needs to accept that it will and prepare for it
When small scale wars are conducted between robots, the next logical step seems to be wars fought only in simulations. This would happen when the cost of war is too high and simulations predict the outcome prior to the first shots.
I don't get why he calls it a "tripolar world" and keeps calling RuZZia a great power. The only reason RuZZia is relevant is because they have nukes -- and given the state of the rest of their MIC I question how functional their nukes even are. We do live in a tripolar world, but the third pole is the EU, not RuZZia. The EU is a sleeping giant, who if they were to create a unified military force, could be on par with the US and China. The EU has been asleep for so long they were pretty much comatose, but RuZZia invading Ukraine has changed that considerably. Even Scholtz has grown a pair and is calling Putin an evil imperialist bent on conquest and expansion.
EU are a bunch of cowards. Any country there would sell out another EU country for its interests any given day. There is no trust and no loyalty there.
I don't think it involves wokery and hiring people based upon immutable characteristics rather than competence. Talk about projecting weakness. Absolute fool isn't he.
