MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The deliberations by high-placed US generals at traditional military conferences on the high likelihood of a war with Russia do not imply any special danger as these are routine talks at such events, Russian military experts interviewed by TASS believe.
As the experts say, the US military strategy is set forth in official documents rather than in unofficial talks at closed forums.
Nevertheless, the general situation in the world is now alarming and the risk of some collisions is quite high, the experts say.
War with Russia "almost guaranteed"
Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said at an annual meeting of the Association of the US Army in Washington that a war against Russia "is almost guaranteed," The Independent reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Joseph Anderson said that the United States faced real security threat "from modern nation-states acting aggressively in militarized competition."
"Who does that sound like? Russia?" he said.
Apart from Russia, a threat to the United States is also posed by China, although it does not possess resources and capabilities sufficient to deploy its military might on a global scale, the meeting participants noted. They also said that Russia and China were improving their non-nuclear forces, which were becoming increasingly advanced technologically.
In this situation, the Pentagon is preparing for military actions on the scale the US Army has not seen since the Korea war, Major-General William Hix from the US Army Staff said.
"A conventional conflict in the near future will be extremely lethal and fast," the paper quoted him as saying.
Read official documents
"The talk is about a regular meeting of the Association of the US Army that comprises active and former Army servicemen and defense enterprises," military expert and editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Viktor Murakhovsky said.
"They hold such annual conferences in the United States as their home country where they demonstrate new types of military hardware and armaments while the US military comprising former and active servicemen make speeches there to deliver their thoughts. Marc Milley whose position can be compared to the post of the Army Commander in our Armed Forces expressed his thoughts as well," the expert said.
In the expert’s opinion, it is not necessary to react to this seriously. "This is the personal opinion of generals expressed at such closed forum of the Army, the defense industry and secular structures. These are usual words, which frequently sound in such a close circle. Sometimes, quite crazy ideas are expressed there," the expert said.
Chairman of the Center for Political Studies, retired Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Buzhinsky also does not see anything alarming in the generals’ words.
"The militaries always prepare for a war and this is the sense of life for a military person," the expert noted.
"Such rhetoric is the obligatory attribute of any such conference. Therefore, what else does one have to speak about at such a meeting? Of course, there could also be a talk about disarmament but the times are different now," he said.
Despite the posts they hold, the generals do not bear any political responsibility for their words, Murakhovsky noted.
"These are simply speeches at a conference while official documents in the sphere of the military strategy should be taken into account. They do not envisage anything even close to that," the expert said.
In the expert’s opinion, "the same Milley speaks at the conference not as an official and the chief of staff but as a military man with extensive experience and expresses his personal opinion."
"The conference’s documents directly say that the military participants do not speak from the position of the posts they hold but express their personal opinion," Murakhovsky added.
According to the expert, something like this has always been observed. "In the 1990s, I visited one such conference: Russia was not mentioned at it at all because the conference participants believed that there was no longer the Russian Army and Russia itself and we had zero capabilities. At that time, they discussed the rising military capabilities of China. And now that we have shown that we have lost far from everything, they have reacted in this way," the analyst said.
Situation is alarming, risk of collisions exists
However, the situation in the world and in relations between the United States and Russia is quite alarming, Chairman of the Center for Political Studies Buzhinsky said.
"And the risk of the emergence of some collision exists today to a considerably greater degree than this was the case not only 10-20 but even 30-40 years ago. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t say that a war is inevitable in the imminent future only because Russia and China are modernizing their armed forces. The instinct of self-preservation should take the upper hand after all," the expert said.
The expert noted at the same time that in principle he didn’t believe in a conflict between Russia and the United States with the use of conventional weapons only.