Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley delivered a stunning warning to America's potential enemies – including Russia, China and North Korea – declaring "we will beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before," Military.com reported.
The stark message came at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting in Washington, where Milley remarked that America's "strategic resolve" and "alliances" are being "tested in ways that we haven't faced in many, many decades."
"I want to be clear to those who wish to do us harm… the United States military – despite all of our challenges, despite our [operational] tempo, despite everything we have been doing — we will stop you and we will beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before," he declared. "Make no mistake about that."
Milley said while America rebuilds its military strength after a decade of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia, China and North Korea "went to school on us."
"They studied our doctrine, our tactics, our equipment, our organization, our training, our leadership," he said. "And, in turn, they revised their own doctrines, and they are rapidly modernizing their military today to avoid our strengths in hopes of defeating us at some point in the future."
According to Military.com, Milley also quoted a senior Russian official as saying publicly, "The established world order is undergoing a foundational shake-up" and that "Russia can now fight a conventional war in Europe and win."
That would-be future battle would be "highly lethal, unlike anything our Army has experienced at least since World War II," Milley said, Military.com reported.
"Our formations will likely have to be small; we will have to move constantly. On the future battlefield, if you stay in one place for longer than two or three hours, you will be dead."
Milley vowed the Army would adapt.
"It's a tall order for sure — to project power into contested theaters, fight in highly populated urban areas, to survive and win on intensely lethal and distributed battlefields and to create leaders and soldiers who can prevail," he said, Military.com reported.
"Tough? Yes. But impossible? Absolutely not."
"Make no mistake about it, we can now and we will … retain the capability to rapidly deploy," he said, "and we will destroy any enemy anywhere, any time."
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