{"id":16600,"date":"2017-07-27T21:04:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T21:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/07\/27\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:59:23","slug":"milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2017\/07\/27\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Milley: Future wars will be long, they&#8217;ll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won&#8217;t save us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wants the American public to stop fooling itself when it comes to war, so he\u2019s drawn up five&nbsp;\u201dmyths\u201d he says we need to let go of, pronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milley shared his thesis with an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, and his take on it has evolved since he first started speaking about<a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/157020\"> four<\/a> slightly different myths of warfare back in 2015. &nbsp;The myths:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>1. &nbsp;Wars will be short<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are wars that have been short in the past, but they\u2019re pretty rare,\u201d he said. Most of the time, wars take longer than people think they will at the beginning of those wars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leaders tend to gloss over conflicts, he said, describing them as a&nbsp;\u201dlittle dust-up,\u201c assuring everyone that victory will be quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBeware of that one,\u201d he said.&nbsp;\u201cWars have a logic of their own sometimes, and they move in directions that are highly unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>2. You can win wars from afar<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dropping bombs has become an increasingly popular way for the U.S. military to fight enemies overseas, but in Milley\u2019s view, few wars are decisively ended until troops come face-to-face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLook, wars are about politics. That\u2019s what they\u2019re about,\u201d he said. \u201dThey\u2019re about imposing your political will, and they\u2019re about people. And I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that human beings can survive horrific things from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He used his father\u2019s experience as a Marine during World War II, storming Iwo Jima after 66 days of relentless bombing from the U.S. Army and naval air forces. His father, he said, was told that all of the Japanese soldiers on that island would have surely been killed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s no eight square miles of Earth that has ever received as much ordnance as the island of Iwo Jima. Almost all the Japanese survived,\u201d he said. \u201dLife wasn\u2019t good, they were drinking their own urine, they never saw the sunlight, they were deep buried under ground, and they weren\u2019t happy campers \u2013 I got it. But they survived. They were ideologically committed to their cause, and they survived enough to kill 7,000 Marines when they hit the beach.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a similar situation in the fight against ISIS now. U.S. and coalition forces were able to take back Mosul, but years of air campaigns couldn\u2019t put a dent in the extremist group\u2019s progress until boots got on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt took the infantry and the armor and the special operations commanders to go into that city, house by house, block by block, room by room, to clear that city,\u201d he said. \u201dWhat I\u2019m telling you is there\u2019s a myth out there that you can win from afar. To impose your political will on the enemy typically requires you, at the end of the day, to close with and destroy that enemy up close with ground forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>3. Special Forces can do it all<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Special Operations Command has grown exponentially in both reach and prestige during the Global War on Terror, but it is not a magic bullet, Milley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a proud Green Beret, love Special Forces,\u201d he said. \u201dSpecial Forces are designated Special Forces, with that name, for a reason. They are special. They do certain special activities, typically of a strategic nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They have the best warriors in the world with the best training, he said, but they are not designed to be plugged into a conflict to pull out a decisive victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe one thing they are not designed to do is win a war,\u201d he said. \u201dThey can do raids, they can train other countries \u2013 there\u2019s lots of other things they can do. Winning a war by themselves is not one of their tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Winning wars will take conventional troops to finish what Special Forces might have started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a myth that you can just throw Special Forces at it and it works \u2013 it\u2019s magic dust,\u201d he said. \u201dIt\u2019s great, but winning wars is not in their job jar, by themselves.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>4. Armies are easy to create<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following years of drawing down troop numbers, the Army this year received the go-ahead from Congress to grow its total force back to over one million. Reaching that number is doable, Milley said, but you can\u2019t just dial up an effective force at the drop of a hat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a myth that you can just bring kids into the military, march them around a field a little bit, six to eight weeks of training and \u2013 boom \u2013 you\u2019ve got an army,\u201d he said. \u201cWrong answer. It takes a considerable amout of time to build armies, navies, air forces and marine corps, especially in today\u2019s environment with complex weapons systems.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For that reason, to fulfill current needs and anticipate future conflicts, Milley and his officials are continuing to ask Congress for funds to grow the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBased on the tasks that are required, I believe we need a larger Army,\u201d he said. \u201dMy teammates on the choice staff also think the same thing of the Navy, Air Force and Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>5. Armies fight wars<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t. Armies don\u2019t fight wars,\u201d he said. \u201cNavies, air forces \u2013 they don\u2019t fight wars. Nations fight wars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, Milley explained, to fight and win wars on behalf of the U.S. takes a buy-in at every level, from service member, civilian and government official alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt takes the full commitment of the entire nation to fight wars,\u201d he said. \u201dWe can do a raid real quick \u2013 that\u2019s one thing. But war is a different thing, and it takes a nation to fight and win a war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br\/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wants the American public to stop fooling itself when it comes to war, so he\u2019s drawn up five \u201dmyths\u201d we need to let go of, pronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[100,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3301],"class_list":["post-16600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"Army chief wants to dispel these five myths about war","legacy_arc_id":"FUQHQGE7UFDEPA3IR6OH46FHWA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2017\/07\/27\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Milley: Future wars will be long, they&#039;ll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won&#039;t save us - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wants the American public to stop fooling itself when it comes to war, so he\u2019s drawn up five \u201dmyths\u201d we need to let go of, pronto.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Milley: Future wars will be long, they&#039;ll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won&#039;t save us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wants the American public to stop fooling itself when it comes to war, so he\u2019s drawn up five \u201dmyths\u201d we need to let go of, pronto.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2017\/07\/27\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Army Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-27T21:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T01:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meghann Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Meghann Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Milley: Future wars will be long, they&#8217;ll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won&#8217;t save us\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2017-07-27T21:04:21+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T01:59:23+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 988,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/82nd-arty.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"News\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\",\n\t                \"Your Army\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/your-army\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/27\\\/milley-future-wars-will-be-long-theyll-be-fought-on-the-ground-and-spec-ops-wont-save-us\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Milley: Future wars will be long, they'll be fought on the ground, and spec ops won't save us - 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