From: slider@anashram.com   
      
   (CNN)The top US military officer told lawmakers Tuesday that the world is   
   becoming more unstable and the "potential for significant international   
   conflict is increasing, not decreasing."   
      
   Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd   
   Austin appeared before the House Armed Services Committee in their first   
   testimony before Congress since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The two   
   Pentagon leaders said the threats from both Russia and China remain   
   significant, while they defended the US approach to the war and the flow   
   of arms the US is sending to Ukraine.   
      
   Milley said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "the greatest threat to   
   peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world" in his 42 years   
   serving in the US military, but added it was "heartening" to see the world   
   rally around Ukraine.   
      
   "The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only   
   European peace and stability but global peace and stability that my   
   parents and a generation of Americans fought so hard to defend," Milley   
   said.   
      
   "We are now facing two global powers: China and Russia, each with   
   significant military capabilities both who intend to fundamentally change   
   the rules based current global order," Milley added. "We are entering a   
   world that is becoming more unstable and the potential for significant   
   international conflict is increasing, not decreasing."   
      
   Several Republicans asked Milley and Austin whether the US failed in its   
   efforts to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine.   
   Milley responded that he did not think Putin could have been deterred   
   unless US forces had deployed from Ukraine -- a scenario he would have   
   advised against had it been proposed.   
      
   "Candidly, short of the commitment of US military forces into Ukraine   
   proper, I'm not sure he was deterrable. This has been a long-term   
   objective of his that goes back years," Milley said. "I think the idea of   
   deterring Putin from invading Ukraine, deterring him by the United States,   
   would have required the commitment of US military forces, and I think that   
   would have risked armed conflict with Russia, which I certainly wouldn't   
   have advised."   
      
   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/mark-milley-ukraine-   
   eaction-international-conflict/index.html   
      
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