evidence: The United States must remain the most powerful nation on Earth if peace is to continue between the U.S., China and Russia, said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who testified today about the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2024 budget request at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. For the first time, the United States is facing two major nuclear powers, whose vital national security interests are in competition with the U.S. Both China and Russia have the means to threaten U.S. national security, he said. "But war with either is neither inevitable nor imminent." Fighting a war with Russia and China simultaneously would be very difficult, he added.