U.S. General Sees Russia as Top Threat

Retiring General Ray Odierno, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, in an August 12, 2015 interview at the Pentagon noted that in a dynamic security environment, the US faced threats from Russia in Europe and China in the Pacific.

I believe this nation’s at an important inflection point, specifically regarding national security. Our security environment remains uncertain and dynamic, and we all know that based on what’s going on in Eastern Europe with Russian aggression, Chinese military, increased investment in their military, increased aggression by China in the Pacific.

While the majority of the questions during the Pentagon interview were about Iraq, ISIL and the Middle East, General Odierno was asked what he thought the top military to threat to the US is.

So, I would say that Russia has a — I believe Russia is the most dangerous because of a couple things. First, they are — they are more mature than some other of our potential adversaries, and I think they have some stated intents that concern me, in terms of how the Cold War ended. And so for me, I’m concerned.

And they have shown some significant capability in Ukraine to do operations that are fairly sophisticated. And so for me, I think we should pay a lot of attention to that.

On August 14, General Odierno retired from the U.S. Army after 39 years of active service.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/613683/department-of-defense-press-briefing-with-gen-odierno-on-the-state-of-the-army

Photo: U.S. Dept. of Defense via flickr