With the Iraq war ending and an Afghanistan exit in sight, the Marine Corps is beginning a historic shift — a return to its roots as a seafaring force that will get smaller, lighter and, it hopes, less bogged down in land wars.
This moment of change happens to coincide with a reorienting of American security priorities to the Asia-Pacific region, where China has been building military muscle during a decade of U.S. preoccupation in the greater Middle East. That suits the Marines, who see the Pacific as a home away from home.
After two turns at combat in Iraq — first as invaders in the 2003 march to Baghdad and later as occupiers of landlocked Anbar province — the Marines left the country in early 2010 to reinforce the fight in southern Afghanistan. Over that stretch the Marines became what the former Joint Chiefs chairman, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, has called their own "worst nightmare:" a second American land army, a static, ground-pounding auxiliary force.
That's scary for the Marines because for some in Congress it raises this question: Does a nation drowning in debt really need two armies?
By: Brant
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5 comments:
You're right, Uncle Sam's Misguided Children are never going away - as they like to point out, the Marine Corps is older than the United States.
But I think it likely they will become smaller, and more of an expeditionary force - back to the truly Small Wars, quick operations to defend American interests... which interests? I need to read my Smedley Butler again....
The Marines have gone through this before after Vietnam around 1974 and there was even mention of the same issues after the first
Gulf war.
...at least they are trying to get ahead of the curve and manage the transition. Kudos for that...
There really is no leaner and meaner in terms of the military. It is just politically correct speech by commanders who are being raped by Congress and the President.
The loss of infantry battalions, artillery and armored vehicles and the reduction of flying squadrons only weaken a force and put our country at risk.
Whenever a cut needs to be made, it is always the military or police/fire/rescue first. Democrat politicians will never cut bloated, unsustainable entitlement programs that are designed for one thing only, to keep them in reelected.
The editor of the MC Gazette says, in his most recent edition, that we can no longer justify our existence by waving old campaign streamers or by relying on old Congressional bromides, like "23% of DoD combat power with 7% of the budget" (true statement, by the way). So the latest issue of the Gazette--what passes for intellectualism in the Corps--is heavy with angst, and waaay into rediscovering our amphibious roots. Included are articles lamenting the fact that no one currently on active duty knows how to combat load an amphibious task force larger than a MEU, and that Marines who step aboard amphibs look like astronauts debarking onto Mars...OK, so it's going to take awhile. But there is no service more dedicated to achievement and success, more highly adaptive to changing circumstance, more willing to accept the rigors of austere budgets, than Mother Green. We're not going anywhere anytime soon.Our leaders and young Turks will struggle mightily, and bitch unceasingly, but they'll also figure it out. Semper Fi...
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