"The US Marines can take people ...... turn them into Marines in 16 weeks." - Bob Schieffer

CBS "Face the Nation" ^ | 2/26/2006 | Bob Schieffer

[Jonah Johansen]

SCHIEFFER: ...my friend Mark Shields, who is an ex-Marine, pointed out on "The Lehrer NewsHour" the other night, he pointed out that the US Marines can take people from all over this country, from all walks of life, and turn them into Marines in 16 weeks. Why can't the Iraqis get these people trained up?

Mr. HADLEY: Well, the Iraqis can train the soldiers to be in the units. But of course, the ability of the unit to work and fight alone without any support is a function of a lot more than just the young men and women in the ranks. It is a question of transportation...

[meandog]

Roger that...Shieldsis an "EX"! All other honorably discharged leathernecks are "former" Marines.

[meandog]

...with exception of Carvile; he's an "EX" too!

[Mike Darancette]

Heck in the American Civil War there was no boot camp. A recruit was put into a unit, that unit was shipped of to an army and trained on the move by people who has finished training just weeks before.

Of course most units (especially Yankees) performed abysmally until blooded several times.

[the Marshal]

The face only a Marine could love.... sniff.. sniff..... boohoohooohooohooohoooo-

-sorry... can't help myself... Gunny is just so damn pretty when he smiles all pretty like a cute little baby like that-

I need a hug.

[Waverunner]

Hard Core Marine DI and WW2 combat veteran

http://www.swanshadow.com/images/DonAdams.jpg

[the Marshal]

The Brits put down the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya using "Pseudo gangs". These were Kikuyu tribesmen armed and trained by the Brits to look like the Mau Mau and hunt them down.

Before long Mau Mau units were opening fire on each other whenever they met.

We need to quit fooling with Saddam's loser ex-army and start setting up Kurds as "Pseudo mujahedin".

[Freee-dame]

What fools these MSM goons are.

Unfortunately many Americans are ignorant and choose to stay that way (music headphones all day). Thus they can be swayed by whatever sounds best to them, no matter how false or illogical. The left counts on this with a vast part of their constituency.

[the Marshal]

That explains why he was so cute.

[Bernard Marx]

Scheiffer is no improvement over Rather.

You get the Award of the Day for Understatement!

The major difference is that Schieffer is truly stupid while Rather is a malicious, devious liar. Anyone who watched Schieffer over the years on his old network show knew very well what to expect. He's just a seniority time-server anyhow while See B.S. preps a Rather replacement in the modern mold.

[em2vn]

Thanks for adding some sense to this.

A squid.

[CyberAnt]

Thank goodness .. I was beginning to wonder if anybody was going to write a book about America - the people who win wars.

What I always found interesting was the fact that the war-winners were always (except for Truman) .. were repubs. And .. even FDR used a moderate repub (Eisenhower) to run his war.

Am I right in thinking that one of the dems' motives for trying to take down Iraq/WOT is because they are still feeling the sting of losing Vietnam .. and it's becomming more and more public that it was their fault - and they did it on purpose by pulling funding ..?? Plus Kronkite's famous revelation that we had lost the TET offensive - when in reality we had won it BIG TIME.

[VOA]

Here's the book Schieffer, Shields and just about every other American should read:


"Making The Corps by Thomas Ricks


link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684848171/qid=1141245317/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-1940528-8808620?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[Tallguy]

Could it be that the average western/American teenager is better raw material for soldiering than the average Arab? I think there is also a cultural component at work here.

[antaresequity]

A friend of mine always checks "Other" as his race in various applications...

In the blank line that accompanies the "Other" race check box he write United States Marine...

[Tallguy]

We need to quit fooling with Saddam's loser ex-army and start setting up Kurds as "Pseudo mujahedin".

You probably heard all the Democrat fretting about the 'fact' that until fairly recently there was only 1 'Grade-A Iraqi battalion' capable of independent operations? That unit was a Kurdish unit. Whenever we needed to sweep a Sunni or Shia neighborhood with a nasty bunch on our side, they'd call in this Kurdish unit.

[the Marshal]

Imagine pseudo-gangs of our guys, recruiting real turkeys who think they've joined Alky Duh - using them to open links to the mujahedin - exporting our gangs to other countries where they are - making them look successful by faking great victories and draw more crazies to them instead of the real thing - having Alky Duh units we've created without them even knowing and reporting to us - scamming the real ones into bumping off their own people - in a year they'd be hiding from each other, especially after they learn some of their brethren are actually our guys - getting Saudi dummies to donate cash to them....
Is anyone at DoD listening to me?
Hello? Anybody home? Earth calling DoD...

[pabianice]

Well, the Liberals can take a man and, in less than 16 weeks, turn him into a six-foot-long tapeworm with his mouth stuck to the wall of the government's intestine. THAT's impressive.

[RobbyS]

we send high school grads for four years to West Point and then they're only lieutenants. And Lts who are no better than Lts. right out of OCS. ;-). But you nailed it. They need an ARMY. How long did it take to stand up the ROK army? It cerrtainly wasn't worth a damn in 1953. 1963, that was a different matter.

[ErnBatavia]

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/jacket2.html

[ErnBatavia]

I went in in 1966, and Boot Camp had been squeezed into 9 weeks. From what I gathered, not much got left out, but the intensity sure never stopped for those coupla months.