That is exactly what soldiers do. They take orders and do what they are told! Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, whatever you want to call them, DO NOT MAKE POLICY! This government is civilian and the civilian government makes policy! The military simply does what it is told. That is the way it has to be. That is why Harry sacked MacArthur. Because he would not listen. Harry sets policy, Doug was suppose to carry it out, not the other way around. Otherwise, you lead to potential military dictatorship!
I’ll go back through my transcript when I get time. I somehow *clearly* remember Bush stating that the decision to withdraw came from the Marines – that they made a military decision to handle it the way they did.
That appears to NOT be the case, unless you consider their following orders to be the "military decision."
Or you give the Marines clear orders and let them carry them out rather than change them when local politician complain about their future. That’s Vietnam.