Abolish the Marine Corps

To fight the wars of the future, the United States needs to radically revamp the way it fights wars and engages the enemy. A new century and new enemies requires new ideas and a fresh mindset. If we become complacent in the way we do things and operate we are liable to get overrun like the Polish cavalry did during the blitzkrieg of September 1939. In my last two essays, I have explored a few ways and ideas the military could accomplish these. In this newest one, I lay my sights on something a bit closer to home for me, the Marine Corps.

I propose we disband the Marine Corps and fold its current operations into the army or the navy. A marine corps of this size (and its soon to be even larger future size) is just another bloated army like branch with separate uniforms, planes, helicopters that merely replicates what is already being accomplished by other branches with about the same success rate. The marine corps is supposed to be an amphibious attack force, launching attacks on coastal regions from ships and planes. However, in the last 3 major conflicts the Marine Corps has participated in, it has merely been just another army with better looking uniforms and goofier looking haircuts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea of a force capable of undertaking amphibious launched attacks is an excellent idea, but is it necessary to have an entire separate branch to conduct these operations? Do we have an airborne corps separate from the army? Do we have bomber corps separate from the air force?

I propose that much of the Marine Corps’ current operations be folded into the army. The Marine Corps fights much like the army on the ground, we use the same weapons, drive the same vehicles, eat the same bad food. There is little need to have a separate marine corps when the current marine corps conducts itself in much the same way as the army on the important facets of war fighting, there is no need to have a duplication of force and effort. Having two branches competing for the same sort of manpower and people is absurd and unnecessary. I propose that units in the army be trained in amphibious operations and be devoted amphibious units or marine units, much like the army already has airborne and mountain divisions. The army has conducted amphibious operations in the past; Europe was liberated because of the army storming beaches in Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. If it did it in World War II, it can do it again in the future. This inclusion in army operations would result in less conflict of interest, less duplication of effort, and I believe overall less waste in the department of defense. Think about the sort of money that can be saved by not having to make separate uniforms for 200,000 people.

The rest of the Marine Corps operations can be folded in with the navy. The marines were first used to guard ships, enforce discipline on ship and make small amphibious landings. The navy already does two of these and through its SEALs, does a good job of doing the last one as well. Marines were supposed to be used in small covert invasions, in fact the first time the marines saw action was at New Providence Island in the Bahamas during the revolution to seize arms and munitions for the war effort. The SEALs these days conduct most of the amphibious based covert operations around the world and fill the role the Marine Corps previously held and most likely should hold. Why should under the department of the navy there be both the marine corps which makes claims of being America’s elite amphibious fighting force while at the same time there exists the SEALs who are supposedly the Navy’s special operations group. Why are two groups doing the job that one could do?

The marine corps is well deserved of its myths and legends and its reputation on the battlefield is second to none. However, it does not need to exist in its current state. Its tasks could be or already are conducted by both the army and the navy and I see little need in having such a huge group existing which merely duplicates these tasks. The military, which has the responsibility of defending our country, cannot allow things to merely exist because of egos, excellent public relations, and outdated forms of doing things. Maintaining America’s freedom requires and demands only the best and if that requires sacrificing the marine corps, or doing an extreme form of down sizing in which it is transformed into a small mobile, special operations commando like force (much like the current Royal Marines in the UK) under the Navy, so be it.