During his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Gen. Mark Milley backed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s assessment that Russia presents the greatest threat to the United States.
Milley has added himself to a growing list of other four-star generals who have recently supported Romney’s remarks to the effect that Moscow is the top national security threat facing the U.S. According to Milley, Russia is “the only country on earth that retains a nuclear capability to destroy the United States, so it’s an existential threat to the United States.”
Two weeks ago, nominee for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joe Dunford, made similar remarks, echoing Romney’s sentiments from his unsuccessful 2012 campaign to unseat Obama. (RELATED: American General Sides With Romney Over Obama)
At the time, Obama mocked Romney’s labeling of Russia as “the number one geopolitical foe” of the U.S. The Cold War, Obama said, has been over for 20 years.
“If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia,” Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If you look at their behavior,” he added, describing Putin’s aggressive involvement in eastern Ukraine, “it’s nothing short of alarming.”
Dunford’s vice chair, U.S. Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, also agreed with Dunford, saying he “would put the threats to this nation in the following order: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and all of the organizations that have grown around ideology articulated by al Qaeda.”
Immediately following Dunford’s comments, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stated that although Obama nominated him for the Army’s top position, his ideas shouldn’t be taken as indicative of the views of the president’s national security team. Nevertheless, Earnest continued, a lot has changed between the United States and Russia since 2012.
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