In the heat of the debate over rebuilding the military two years ago, Army Gen. Mark Milley issued a warning about a dangerous decline to John McCain’s Senate Armed Services Committee and uttered a favorite phrase that summed up his outlook and has reverberated since.
“The butcher’s bill is paid in blood, of American soldiers, for unready forces,” said Milley, the current Army chief of staff who was nominated Saturday by President Trump to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The general is set to bring his long experience with war, advocating for bigger and more timely budgets, and preparing troops for combat when he succeeds Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is set to retire as his term as chairman ends next fall, as the country’s top military officer and adviser to the president.
“I’ve known General Milley for years and met him on numerous occasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s a battle-tested commander and Pentagon reformer who will be a worthy successor to Gen. Dunford,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement.
Milley has led the Army as its top uniformed officer since he was tapped by former President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2015 and worked to right the service as it struggled with budget caps and lagging readiness for war in its brigade combat teams.
The “butcher’s bill” warning was part of a push by the services and hawks in Congress that eventually led to two years of defense budget hikes after years of continuing resolutions and Budget Control Act caps.
The Army general has seen the effects of cuts directly. Before being confirmed as Army chief of staff, Milley headed U.S. Army Forces Command and was responsible for training and preparing soldiers who served in the military’s combatant commands and fought in combat zones.
The defense secretary at the time, Ash Carter, called Milley a “warrior and a statesman.”
Milley also served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was the general in charge of International Security Assistance Force-Joint Command, or ISAF.
Taliban fighters stormed the U.S. consulate in Herat, Afghanistan in 2013 and waged a firefight that killed three Afghans. Milley was on the ground at the consulate following the brazen attack, Carter recalled.
“Mark and I flew to Herat the day after an attack on the U.S. Consulate there, and I saw Mark take command of the scene and stand with our people there. I was impressed by his candor and good judgement, and I knew right away that he had even more to offer to the United States Army,” Carter said in 2015.
Now that Trump plans to officially nominate Milley, Milley must testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee and be confirmed by a vote on the chamber floor. He is unlikely to face much opposition, as the general has deep respect from both sides of Capitol Hill.
“Many of my colleagues and I have appreciated Gen. Milley’s direct, insightful military assessments based upon his intellect and years of experience,” Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, an architect of the budget hikes, said in a statement.
Milley has largely avoided controversy as Army chief of staff but earlier this year he did weigh in on one of Trump’s most controversial policies, the ban on many transgender people enlisting in the military, saying it is not a civil rights issue.
“It is important that this 1 percent who wear this uniform and the clothe of our country, we’re giving up certain civil rights so the other 99 percent can retain their civil rights. We know that, we do it willingly and volunteer to do it,” he said during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “So, this is not an issue, with respect to transgenders, this is not an issue in my view, this is not a civil rights issue.”
