given the difficulties in haditha and other abuses, should the marines be abolished and wrapped into the army?

Question

it would seem the marines are now producing undisciplined punks and thugs to try and win over the hearts and minds of the iraqis. it appears that the marines may be failing in their mission of training the finest fighting force in the world (which, if you were ever a marine, you know thats a bunch of propaganda anyway). if the stories being reported are true then those punks masquerading as marines need to be dealt with swiftly and very severely.
a former marine

Answer 1

No matter what they have done, the Marines need to be disbanded anyway. There are more Army Rangers than Marines (Force Recon Marines graduate from Army Ranger School). We no longer need them. They originally were a Corps of Soldiers loaned to the Navy and never returned.

Answer 2

The U.S. Marine Corps is composed of men and women with specialized skills, which is why there are only about 200,000 of them. Most Army soldiers could not do what they do. Besides, since many missions involve the various forces, they are already integrated into The U.S. Armed Forces, which has a single Commander in Chief (the President), and after that they answer to the Secretary of Defense. Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have a single chairman who can be from any of the forces.

By the way, ask any soldier or sailor or airman and he or she will tell you that if a fight breaks out they hope Marines are closeby. If YOU write this: "If the stories being reported are true..." I have to wonder why, in advance of that, you are calling them "punks and thugs".

I believe that people who cannot appreciate the freedoms our armed forces occasionally have to protect are the real Punks & Thugs.

Answer 3

To date I have not seen direct evidence, nor have I seen any charges filed which support the facts that this incident ever happened. Correct me if I am wrong, but the last time I looked you were still considered innocent until proven guilty in this country.
As to the Marines being joined with the Army. First off the Marines are not a standalone service, they are under the Department of The Navy. Second the Marines are designed to serve a different purpose than the Army. The Marine mission is too serve as a rapid deployment force, which they excel at. I agree with a previous poster stating they should not be used for policing duties.
I don't know what experience you had with Marines that so soured you against them, but during my tenure in the U.S. Navy I had the honor of serving with many Marines. I always found these men and women to be fine upstanding patriots willing to give their life in service to this country.

To runnin on mt Semper Fi.

Answer 4

This is an entirely different type of conflict than Marines are trained for. Marines are the Nation's premier "Bust In, Clear the space, widen a hole" force to make way for the follow-on forces of the Army, with Naval air and missile/gunnery support and Air Force cover. The Army is the group that should proceed to clear cities, take and hold ground.
I think that the choices made back in the late 70's and 80's to redistribute and draw down the active force and transfer certain missions to the Army and Marine Reserve and Nat Guard are coming back to haunt us now. I was involved in a couple BRAC rounds as a senior planner and we kept telling them the pressures of modern conflict would come around to bite them in the ***. I hate to be the one to say, "I told you so", but "I TOLD YOU SO"!!! Not much an LTC can do when the Civilian leadership, Congress, and the CYA Generals want to cut budgets.
It's a shell game. Brag that you've closed an active military base, the money for that base doesn't come out of the active budget, but the Guard and Reserves and other Government agencies move into the base, the same place, still active, but paid for out of a different pot of money.
I believe the current crop of Marines have a heritage and a right to be called Marines, but I think the current way they are being used is wrong and makes for difficult supervision, puts them in difficult positions, requires snap judgements and decisions (some times wrong ones, but that's the nature of war), and they are not being backed by the leadership to busy doing the CYA dance.
There's always a few bad apples in every barrel, but with the lightning speed of todays communication systems, and every G.I. has access to e-mail, lot's of tales are being told "Out of school" that are better left in the consciousness of the individual soldier, sailor, airman and marine. Take it to the Chaplain, not the N.Y. Times.

Answer 5

Don't you think your question is a bit premature? As for propaganda the biggest piece of propaganda I see is your claim that you are a former marine. I AM a former marine and these guys are carrying on the tradition quite well and I am proud of them. Sounds to me like YOU are the undisciplined punk.

Mark W sounds to me like you don't know a whole lot about the Marine Corps either. Seeing as how you claim to be involved with armed forces recruiting I think I'd keep my mouth shut if I was you until i knew what I was talking about. Might not be a bad idea anyway before some marine "disbands" your ***.

Answer 6

I currently am friends with marines and I know that they were humilated by the way these marines were conducting themselves on behalf of the United States. But to try and combine a whole sector of our military, one of the finer ones, into the Army is a mistake. You handle the individuals as that. Individuals. If every time we combined our military because a few made bad judgement calls where would our militay be? A disgrace. Everyone makes mistakes. There are punks everywhere. Don't punish our hard working men and women in the Marines and disgrace them for a few unruly men by combining them with the Army.

Answer 7

I'm amazed that Americans keep believing the propaganda. Were told were the most powerful military. We have the best technology. We have the best fighting equipment. Then why can't we destroy a country the size of California who have no military. How did we get whipped in Somalia? Vietnam wasn't a cake walk. What we need to do is unleash the entire arsenal against those who stand in our way. The separation of the military allows the appropriation money to be easily lost. It's a game for profit, testing and analyst!

Answer 8

Yes the punks have to be dealt with, however you forget Abu Ghrab was Army. If they are guilty you are right they need to be dealt with swiftly and severely, but let's not take away one of the rights they are fighting for, a fair trial. We cannot try our service men in the media, unless we ourselves are willing to allow the media to try us. We all know the media is biased against the war, and the troops. The whole mess is turning into a witch hunt. The media is only willing to report what they want us to hear.

A former Doc.

Answer 9

The Army was associated with the earlier prison abuse issues. I don't think it's isolated to a particular branch of the service. It's a leadership issue.

Answer 10

No, the Marines should simply be removed from policing duty. They're trained killers, not cops.