CSA Outlines Topics to Discuss with Incoming Administration

WASHINGTON --- Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. recently outlined three topics he believes are important for the Army to address with the incoming administration.>> During an address to several hundred Army staff leaders Nov. 12 at the Pentagon, Casey said he believes it will be important to address the current strategic environment, the state of the Army, and Army transformation with the new administration.>> "If you don't have a meeting of the minds at the highest level on the threat you are facing, and on the strategic environment, you never come together," Casey said. "You don't necessarily have to agree, but you have to know where you disagree.">> The general reiterated a theme he's visited repeatedly during public addresses: the nation is engaged in a period of persistent conflict, which he defines as protracted confrontation among state and non-state actors who are increasingly willing to use violence to accomplish their political and ideological objectives.>> "We are at war and have been at war for over seven years," he said. "It is an ideological struggle against a global extremist terrorist network, and it is one that it is going to take a long time to resolve. These folks are brutal men and they are not going to quit. That is the reality.">> The Army must also be prepared to deal with what Casey refers to as hybrid of threats, having combinations of irregular, terror, criminal and conventional capabilities, he said. Hezbollah in Lebanon, for instance, has used state-of-the-art anti-tank guided missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and cruise missiles. The terrorist organization blended those weapons and capabilities with asymmetric techniques and improvised explosive devices, the general said.