The values that new Marines swear to uphold.
Yesterday, September 11, 2015, I had the privilege of watching 622 new Marines put on an impressive graduation ceremony. They started training on June 23rd and officially became Marines when they completed the Crucible about a week ago. This ceremony was their last official duty at Parris Island before leaving for the School of Infantry at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.
They all look so young.
[Note: the video starts with the flag raising ceremony, “Morning Colors,” at 0800 and then moves to the graduation parade itself, which began at 0900. The flag was raised only to half staff in memory of 9/11. The band is the MCRD Parris Island Band, which makes appearances all around the country. The dog’s name is “Legend.”]
Slightly East of New 
“Very pretty colonel, but can they fight ?”*
*Donald Sutherland, in the hollywood classic; “The Dirty Dozen.”
Meanwhile, here’s the asymmetric threat;
http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaeda-chief-urges-lone-wolf-attacks-u-112417188.html
Max,
They’re on their way. What they really learn at Parris Island is the attitude that they can accomplish things they never would have dreamed possible if they put their minds, bodies, and spirits into it and support each other as a team.
Those going into an infantry MOS will get another 9 weeks of infantry training at Camp Geiger (non-infantry get 5 weeks there, at a different training battalion), then off to their units. Of course, they’ll get a lot more training with their units after that. So they’ll be able to fight.
Even the “asymmetric” threats tend to form up into units when they can, and that makes them vulnerable to better trained forces, like the USMC. Look, for example, at Mao’s stages of insurgency. Stages 2 and 3 are much more like what the Marines and the Army do than stage 1. I’m not claiming that the Marines, or anybody else, can occupy countries with wildly different cultures than our own. But there are still valid uses for organized military force out there — protection/evacuation of Americans and our allies overseas, operations with allies against conventional attacks, participation in UN-authorized peacekeeping activities, and so on.
A lone wolf is a criminal, pure and simple. If we don’t over-react, and thereby do our opponents’ jobs for them, the net result should be more support for our cause. Look at the outpouring of support for the US right after 9/11. It wasn’t until we turned our focus from al-Qa’ida to Iraq that we threw all that away.
All well and good Chet, you make sense, and I agree.
My main concern at the moment is the crisis of political leadership, particularly in N.America.
With the US is poised to establish itself as a family run oligarchy, whether Clinton, or yet another Bush. It’s essentially and by extrapolation the same model as N. Korea, and Syria (how’s that working out ?).
The alternative is
a multi-billionare kleptomanic who apparently sustains a fortune, bilking people on real estate deals.
Canada is no better off, with a national election that comes down to the “least worst”
or who may do the least damage, with their own lunatic agenda and self interests.
Mexico, is effectively a criminal controlled cartel.
I don’t see this as sustainable, do you ?
And who, are these new marines sworn to defend, in that case ?
M
Max,
Yes, I know. It can be depressing. To answer your immediate question, these new Marines, like all members of the military, swear to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
You can certainly get the idea that we’re in for some kind of state change, that we just can’t go on like this. Problem is that all of the alternatives to electoral democracy have proven themselves even worse at governing. Typically, they become kleptocracies in short order because there’s no alternative to their corruption. At least we can vote the bastards out. If we choose not to, then we know whom to blame.
Vote them out, sure, but the alternatives, turn out
are as BAD if not worse, time after time.
I never though it would get this BAD, this FAST, and in my lifetime.
What a mess.
People have to get back to living on an extended family basis, communities, groups,
self sufficiency, and modestly.
Max,
As Fabius Maximus always says, voting them out is the least of our civic duties. You can actively support better candidates by contributing time and money to their campaigns and, of course, running for office yourself.
It’s a beautiful thing Chet, it brings a tear to my eye, and I’m reminded of Lincoln’s immortal words,
and that government of the Billionaires, by the Billionaires, for the Billionaires, shall
not perish from this earth.