General Mark Milley discusses the role of the highest-ranking military officer with the audience at Duke University

Although the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking officer in the United States, he is not in the command system.

"I don't make a decision," General Mark Milley, the 20th and current head of the office, said Friday at Duke University. "And you have to be very careful."

On the contrary, Milly said, the role of the chairman is to provide the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council with “thought-out, strict, and well-thought-out” recommendations on the use of US troops.

"We are not allowed by law and should not make a decision," he said. "This is the role that civilian leadership should have."

However, despite his nominal advisory role, the chairman has a huge influence on the way the U.S. military is deployed. At a public event in Page Auditorium, Milly discussed his work in this position with Peter Feaver, director of the American Grand Strategy Program at Duke University and professor of political science and public policy at Duke University. Milli’s one-day campus visit also included meetings with reserve officer training team units and visits to Duke laboratories, which are being funded by the Department of Defense for research.

Feaver asked Milley (who has held this position since 2019) about countless topics about his work in that position during the country's turbulent times. Here are some excerpts:

"This is a series of decisions that took place over 20 years. The result-the Taliban occupied Kabul and the Afghan government collapsed-this is not the result of a 20-day evacuation. This is the result of years of war. We should go to the left or should at some point in time. To the right. This is the cumulative effect of multiple decisions. In the past 20 days, this is not a single set of decisions. The soldiers, the marines, the sailors, the pilots on the mission, I think they behaved very well outstanding."

"We don't want officers and generals to resign every time they don't take your advice."

"Many times I don't like things, but you don't give up just because you don't like it."

"If the decision maker chooses to move in a different direction, that is the privilege of the decision maker. Our obligation, our legal obligation, is to implement the decision to the best of our knowledge."

"(China) 40 years of economic growth, economic power and the rise of systems are rare phenomena in history. So this is a fact. After the economic rise, the army has transformed from a peasant-based army to a very advanced army. , Can carry out operations in all fields, including space and networks, and then land, sea, air and undersea. We have seen that an army has at least regional ambitions, or even global ambitions, to realize China’s national dreams. That is. It will be-we may like it or not-but it is a fact that it will accompany us for many years and decades, and as a country, we will have to accept it."

"That incident was a political act. Politicians can do political acts, they can do whatever they want, but I can't. So I think this is very important to me, as a senior military officer to explain to formations, troops, and the American people, we wear Uniforms have nothing to do with domestic politics. So I did. That apology was part of a wider speech, but I think it’s vital for those of us in uniforms to remember that we abide by the civilians appointed to us. Legal, legal order. This is the law, this is the tradition, this is what it should be. This is what the American people expect of us. Under no circumstances should we intervene in actual American domestic politics. This is forbidden. We can’t do that."

"We have no role. The U.S. military has no role in domestic electoral politics. The American people have a say. They participate in polls and vote when they vote for any candidate they vote for. Their votes are counted. If the election has any Disputes, then the next step is to go to court. [When] the court is completed, then enter the legislature, the legislature certifies the election. The US military will never participate in anything."

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