Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Anti-Pirate Duty

Colorado Representative, Republican Mike Coffman is pushing to put military members on board all U.S. flagged ships passing through pirate waters. http://coffman.house.gov/2009/04/coffman-wants-us-military-on-merchant-ships.shtml

Marine Commandant, General Conway wants Marines to have more of a maritime presence, like we did at our inception. http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4101

It is my opinion that the primary roles of the Marine Corps is to defend ships, conduct amphibious, expeditionary operations, and operate in small teams to defend installations/persons vital to U.S. interests.

If we adhered to these missions, Marines would:
- do just what Representative Coffman is suggesting and man all U.S. ships,
- remain at U.S. Embassies and diplomatic facilities both domestic and abroad,
- pull completely out of Iraq, Afghanistan and all other protracted struggles more suitable for U.S. Army involvement and,
- expand the number of Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU's) that are currently deploying.

We are good at protracted ground combat and know how to engage a land adversary in conventional combat, but that doesn't mean it is or should be our mission. Hammers are good at pounding in screws, but that shouldn't necessarily be their mission.

What do you think?

Semper Fi,
m

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