Deployments to US-Mexico border straining Marine Corps, commandant warns

OPINION:

I'm going to say this was a LEAKED document by the #FakeNews MSM. That said, the language quoted is simply a frank depiction of a budget stressor from a subordinate to a superior.

Budget guidance from top to bottom usually includes an amount for contingencies. Sometimes the amount is more than what's needed, and sometimes it is less than what is needed.

But the article makes it seem as though Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Neller, told a reporter that he couldn't guarantee Marine Corp readiness because of the border security crisis. In fact, no such thing took place.

Originally reported by the LA Times, this comment was apparently cherry-picked from a LEAKED memo to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.

My question is, who leaked to memo?

For us to be successful as a nation, we need to have political and military goals that are the SAME. Our history proves this correct. In WWII, the First Gulf War, Grenada and Panama for example, our goals militarily and politically were the same, and those wars and operations were successful. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Benghazi, it seemed at times that we could not get out of our own way. This was due to conflicting military and political goals. Sometimes the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing.

In Iraq, a major blunder was firing all of the Iraqi Army. It created such a strong vacuum in the economy (unemployed soldiers) that an insurgency took its place. Foreseeable? Yes, if the political appointees had listened to what I'm sure were a thousand voices against it from the military side of the house things would have worked out much differently, especially and at least in the short term.

Smooth transitions are almost always better than abrupt ones, especially if the abrupt ones are decided by only a few people from the political realm about military goals.

In Benghazi, again, political appointees assumed to control military assets on a micromanagement scale.

Having a civilian controlled military has its challenges, but they should not be overwhelming to the point of ineptness. Lives and livelihoods are at stake.

One of the hallmarks of an effective military officer is their ability to prepare for contingencies. A good officer ALWAYS has an answer for the question: And then what? And usually more than one good answer at that.

We have learned over the short history of our country that things almost NEVER turn out the way you expect them to. German officers during WWII famously commented that they had read and understood all of our military manuals, but that apparently we hadn't.

American ingenuity and creativity are well known but not so well understood or appreciated.

We are trained to ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION. How we get there is less important than getting there.

Examples aboutnd from the famous philosphy of perhaps our greatest combat general, George S. Patton, Jr., who said, "Never tell someone how to do something. Tell them what you want them to do, and then let them amaze you with their ingenuity."

The most decorated US soldier of WWII, Audie Murphy, was only 5' 5 1/2" tall and weighed 112 pounds. Let that sink in.

We are a nation of winners, doers and make-doers. We are creative and stubborn on the battlefield.

During the Battle of the Bulge, US Army General Anthony McAuliffe, was famous for his one word reply to German Army officers who had the general and his 101st Airborne troops surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium, and asked for his surrender. "Nuts!" He said! And the rest is history.

We are proud. We are head strong. We are confident. And all for good reason - we are the BEST. But even the best can't perform to expectations and beyond if they are hindered by micromanagers.

Are the Marine Corps on the brink of bankruptcy, unable to function because they have a few troops on the border?

Of course not! And to suggest they are is absurd.

The LEAKED memo was not meant for us to see, like millions of similar conversation between subordinates and their superiors when it comes to costs and funding.

Trust me, the Marines are ready, will ALWAYS be ready, at the drop of a hat to do whatever, whenever they are needed.

It's just too bad that the #FakeNews MSM are so desperate to make things seem worse than they are that they would stoop to publishing hand-picked sentences from LEAKED memos tha they obviously have no clue about.