‘The more successful we are in the diplomatic space, the more uncomfortable military leaders are going to be,’ Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford says
The top U. S. general says diplomatic efforts on the Korean Peninsula will lead to military “discomfort” in the coming months, as leaders try to strike a “very difficult balance” between military risk and political progress.
“The more successful we are in the diplomatic space, the more uncomfortable military leaders are going to be,” General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a group of reporters at a conference at the Navy League Building just outside Washington Friday.
The general’s comments came a week after the U. S. and South Korean militaries suspended another large-scale joint military exercise.
Give diplomacy a chance
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said last Friday the two militaries were suspending their joint air exercise, dubbed Vigilant Ace, in order to “give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue.”
Before that, the United States and South Korea canceled annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercises that had been scheduled for August.
Dunford told reporters the decision to suspend these exercises was informed by the fact that the general in command of the peninsula, General Vincent Brooks, is an experienced commander who has been in the Korean theater for three years.
