“...I may have an unusual view of the military than the current army, navy, air farce...” [ctdonath2, post 133]
“You’re intensely defensive toward a stranger’s opinion...
What do you care?” [ctdonath, post 134]
If you haven’t figured it out, I will tell you & everyone else.
It’s because I actually care about military effectiveness, and care still more about the lives of the people whose job it is to go in harm’s way. Hundreds are my personal friends, and I was privileged to make the acquaintance of thousands more.
Marines rank high on my list. You may find it trivial, but I’ve attended Air Force dinings-in where toasts were raised to the 5th Marine Division, in remembrance of their exploits on Iwo Jima in 1945.
Marines also concern themselves with doctrine; the other armed services do so only spottily at best. It may have escaped you in the uproar, but the military establishment is supposed to conduct operations jointly. This has been true pursuant to public law enacted by Congress, and numerous supporting Presidential directives, since the late 1940s. Your comments give no hint that you are aware of this.
Evaluating and improving systems, and assisting in the enhancement and reformulation of doctrine, isn’t simple and it doesn’t happen quickly. But without the intellectual/historical processes, the organized military isn’t anything grander than a collection of self-congratulatory, self-regarding, self-righteous has-beens. Luminous histories, honorable traditions, and long legacies mean nothing if they aren’t utilized to figure out where we’ve been, and where we might best go next.
If that earns opprobrium from the heroically uniformed, and the thin-skinned, it’s worth the annoyance and discomfiture. You’re not the first. If Marines are so tough, why are some so thin-skinned?
Obviously accuracy & relevance doesn’t matter to you, only the opportunity to designate an opponent and impute your chosen evil thereon.
Check #133 again. Carefully. Am awaiting your apology.