US Marines in the 21st century

Just the urls, ma'am.
Post Reply
Jonathan
Grand Pooh-Bah
Posts: 6722
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR
Contact:

US Marines in the 21st century

Post by Jonathan »

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/maga ... .html?_r=0
The bedrock of Marine tradition is a long-ago era when buff, male and mostly white combat Marines launched amphibious early-morning assaults on enemy beaches armed with M1 rifles and Ka-Bar knives. Today’s far less homogeneous troops roll into battle in armored Humvees or tanks, with sophisticated high-powered weaponry and thermal-imaging goggles. Many never leave their base at all, waging war remotely while operating a joystick or writing code. In many ways, the Marines have become indistinguishable from the Army.

Adapting to these harsh truths hasn’t been easy for the corps, whose current and former officials, with some exceptions, were reluctant to speak openly about these challenges except on condition of anonymity. ‘‘The Marines have a purpose, and it’s a militant purpose,’’ one senior officer says. ‘‘We are an organization grounded on the physical, but wars are not as physical anymore. The character of war has evolved a lot from the early 20th century. The question is: Has our force evolved? I don’t think it has.’’
Huh.

Dave
Tenth Dan Procrastinator
Posts: 3483
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2003 3:40 pm

Re: US Marines in the 21st century

Post by Dave »

The need to recruit all the failed pro-gamers!
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

Post Reply