ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Strategic competition is driving the Army’s effort to modernize, but the counterterrorism fight that dominated the past 20 years of U.S. military operations is not over, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said.

“Terrorism is not going away, at least in my eyes,” he said Sept. 9 during a webinar hosted by Defense One. “There are groups of people out there who have committed to wanting to kill Americans and, if they have the opportunity, to attack the homeland.”

The U.S. military is “on a path” to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan to between 4,000 and 5,000 this fall and a complete withdrawal in 2021. 

Testifying before Congress, David Helvey, the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific affairs policy chief, said the evolving U.S. strategy “prioritizes ending the war through a political process, acknowledging that there is no military solution to the conflict.” 

Our basic approach is to work by, for and with our partners in the region, to increase their capabilities and try to reduce terrorist threats

Feb. 8, 2017

The Army must begin aggressively restructuring, reorganizing and modernizing to meet the challenges posed by near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China, said Maj. Gen. William C. Hix, director of strategy, plans and policy, deputy chief of staff G-3/5/7.

Hix spoke Feb. 7 during the Gen. Bernard W. Rogers Strategic Issues Forum, which was hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare. The event was held at the AUSA Conference and Event Center in Arlington, Va.

An Army counterterrorism expert told a congressional committee that the military has been and will continue to be part of U.S. efforts to combat the Islamic State group and other terrorist threats, but it is only one part—and it may not even be the most important part for long-term success.

That’s one of the primary lessons learned over the past 15 years, Lt. Col. Bryan Price, director of the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy, told the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing assessing the state of the battle against Islamic extremism since 9/11.