General Milley Warns: War in Korea Would be “Tragic on an Unbelievable Scale”
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressed Chief of Staff of the Army General Mark Milley in a hearing today on the details of the United States’ policy toward North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and the potentially severe consequences of North Korea gaining a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental United States.
Answering a question from Senator Sullivan about U.S. policy, General Milley stated, “…the current United States government’s policy is to prevent North Korea from fielding an ICBM with a nuclear weapon to strike the continental United States.”
Answering an additional question from Senator Sullivan about the capability of U.S. forces to “dominate the battlefield” against North Korea if the U.S. was forced to militarily enforce this policy, General Milley agreed, saying, “Absolutely yes. [U.S. military forces and Republican of Korea forces] would dominate the battlefield. North Korea would not succeed and North Korea would lose.”
Senator Sullivan and General Milley went on to discuss what a conflict might look like on the Korean Peninsula.
Below is a transcript of this exchange during the hearing.
Senator Sullivan: “Can you describe what a war with North Korea would look like. Would it be similar to what we’ve seen over the past 15 years in Iraq and Afghanistan?”
General Milley: “No, it would not look anything like the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Senator Sullivan: “What would [a war with North Korea] look like?”
General Milley: “…If there was a full-blown war on the Korean Peninsula—just as Secretary of Defense Mattis said the other day—it would be tragic on an unbelievable scale. The levels of violence would be immense, the likes of which the world hasn’t seen since the Second World War. It would be huge, and there would be huge amounts of casualties on both sides. It would be horrific.”
Earlier this week, Senator Sullivan introduced the Advancing America’s Missile Defense Act, which would bolster the nation’s missile defense system, increase testing, acquire more interceptors, and accelerate the development of new technologies needed to keep U.S. defenses ahead of the North Korean threat. Improving U.S homeland missile defense capability will provide American leaders with additional time and decision space during any potential conflict with North Korea, and protect American citizens from this looming threat.
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