Defense Writers Group
7 December 2022
Moderator: Good morning everyone and welcome to this Defense Writers Group with General David H. Berger, Commandant, United States Marine Corps. General, we’re honored by your presence at such a busy and dramatic time.
The ground rules, as always, this is on the record. You can record it for accuracy and quotes but nothing may be rebroadcast, either audio or video. I’ll ask the first question then we’ll move around the room. Almost a dozen of you emailed in advance to be on the list, but we’ll get to as many of you as we possibly can. I’ll save a few minutes at the end for General Berger to wrap up with any concluding thoughts.
Sir, you’ve embarked on dramatic, even historic changes in how the Marines are equipped, prepared to fight, including how and where they are postured and deployed. Give us a little bit of the underlying rationale for force design and my question for you, sir, is what do you see in the world of risk that your very vocal critics do not?
General Berger: Great question. I’ll answer the very back part first very quickly. I think if they were sitting here, the critics, they would probably see the risks not any different than me. They have a disagreement about the process or the solution but not a lot of difference on how they see the threats. The execution of it, we have a lot of discussion about.
