Mark A. Milley Quotes

We have challenges to be sure, but the military has been and remains the largest meritocracy in the world. We promote, we advance and we select based on your knowledge, your skills, your attributes and the content of your character. We are stronger together. Diversity builds a better team and readiness.

And finally, there is the mother of all technologies — artificial intelligence — where machines are actually developing the capacity to learn and to reason. These rapidly converging developments in time and space are resulting in that profound change — the most profound change ever in human history. And whatever overmatch we, the United States, enjoy militarily … the United States is challenged in every domain of warfare: space, cyber, maritime, air and land.

The 6th of January was one of the days of high risk. Neither I, nor anyone that I know of, to include the FBI or anybody else, envisioned the thousands of people who assaulted the capitol. To basically encircle the Capitol and assault it from multiple directions simultaneously, and to do what they did, that was something else. The 6th was pretty dramatic. That's about as dramatic as you're going to see it, short of a civil war... What you might have seen was a precursor to something far worse down the road.

You're entering a different world. The United States is under significant challenges in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. We see revanchist Russia, as we have just witnessed another invasion in Ukraine. In Asia, we are in the third decade of the largest global economic shift in 500 years, resulting in a rapidly rising China as a great power with a revisionist foreign policy backed up with an increasingly capable military.

We are facing, right now, two global powers: China and Russia, each with significant military capabilities, and both fully intend to change the current rules-based order.

As you march into your future, have the vision to change and to prevent war from happening in the first place. By maintaining peace through the strength of the U.S. military, and the example of our values, it is up to you, today.

If you can't get in shape in 24 months, then maybe you should hit the road.

We are proud of you. You have a difficult and dangerous road ahead, and no one should underestimate it. But you also have the opportunity to navigate those dangerous roads ahead and to lead our nation's most precious resource: the young men and women who don the cloth of this nation, the American soldier.

Milley: Look, I'm a soldier. I've been faithful and loyal to the Constitution of the United States for 44-and-a-half years. And my family and I have sacrificed greatly for this country, and my mother and father before them. And, you know, as much as these comments are directed at me, it's also directed at the institution of the military. There's 2.1 million of us in uniform. And the American people can take it to the bank that all of us, every single one of us from private to general, we're loyal to that Constitution and we'll never turn our back on it, no matter what the threats, no matter what the humiliation, no matter what. If we're willing to die for that document, if we're willing to deploy to combat, if we're willing to lose an arm, a leg, an eye, to protect and support and defend that document and protect the American people, then we're willing to live for it, too. So, I'm not going to comment directly on those things, but I can tell you that this military, this soldier, me- we'll never turn our back on that Constitution.
Milley: But for the record, was there anything inappropriate or treasonous about the calls you made to China?
Milley: Absolutely not. Zero. None.
O'Donnell: It almost seems odd to ask this question. Because the former commander-in-chief seems to be calling for your execution. Are you worried about your safety?
Milley: I've got adequate safety protection. I wish those comments had not been made, but they were, and we'll take appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family.