Re: Today's Bad News
Reply #504 –
Newt Gingrich pointed me to an alarming development that bears upon the readiness of U.S. forces:
The Marine Corps is small, agile, and flexible, priding itself on being the first to fight, anywhere. Over the past four years, however, the current Commandant, General David H. Berger, has radically transformed the image and the mission of the Marine Corps. The primary focus now is upon developing missile units intended to sink Chinese warships. To fund those units, General Berger did away with 21% of the personnel in infantry battalions, 100% of the tanks, 67% of the cannon artillery batteries, 33% of the assault amphibious companies, nearly 30% of Marine aviation, and almost all assault breaching equipment. The desired number of large amphibious ships was reduced from 38 to 31. Due to these cuts, Marines are less capable to fight as a combined arms force. [emphasis added]
Between the Osprey goof and constant efforts to "retire" the venerable "Warthog", the Marines have not been well-supplied... But this change in mission is bizarre! And dangerous...
And it's mostly secret? Scary.
Will Congress intervene? Before it's too late...?