jpetito

Someone somewhere once said (I think it was some left coast think tank) that Marines are the "Intellectuals of ground combat," and went on to describe the innovations the Marine Corps have made in the art and science of breaking things and dismantling people to further the political ends of our government.

But the term "intellectual" doesn't jive with the image of a bunch of Marines standing around in a circle after coming out of the field and some Lance Corporal says "Hey! watch this!" What comes next probably doesn't fit into anyone's image of thoughtful, well-considered action.

If in fact we are the intellectuals of ground combat, it is because:

We realize there are five ways to do any one thing.

If the enemy says to us, "You stop here!," ten of his men one hundred meters behind him will turn to shreds, and while he is turning around in surprise, he will join them.

It's because if the enemy thinks he owns the hearts and minds of his countrymen, we will buy his people off with respect and medicine and clean water, and his people will show us where to put the cross-hairs.

When the enemy plays whack-a-mole, we flood the lawn until he chokes or pops up and we shred him.

When the enemy wants to die for his cause and join his pantheon, we will back off as much as is reasonable and give him every opportunity.

The constant image in the press and the other uninformed cadres of society is of a bunch of simple-minded-non-university-graduates having more muscle in their backs and shoulders than between their ears. I kind of like that image. When the enemy looks us in the eye with that image in the back of their mind, we'll smile and put their mind ten feet behind them.