Defense One has an "editorial opinion piece" written by Amos. The funny thing is that he practically goes head up against the Vice Chairman of the JCS in his thinking. Consider this a dueling quote post....
General Amos.
Tomorrow’s Marines will see challenges such as violent extremism, battles for influence, disruptive societal transitions, natural disaster, extremist messages and manipulative politics. We will likely see criminal enterprises wield combat power once associated only with states, as well as separatism, extremism and intolerance that lead to terrorism, protests and violence. We will see new technologies place modern weapons into the hands of developing states and non-state actors while the development and proliferation of advanced conventional weapons challenges our ability to project power or gain access. In this security convergence it will be the forward influence, strategic mobility, effective power projection and rapid response capabilitiesVCJCS Winefeld.
As for counterinsurgency, Adm. Winnefeld said “we are more likely to see a Desert Storm type of operation, ejecting a nation that has invaded an ally or a friend of the United States, than we are to see another decade-long counterinsurgency campaign.”Long story short? Well I can't make it short but I will say this. I don't know how Amos got so infatuated with COIN type operations but he's bought into the concept whole hog.
“I simply don’t know where the security interests of our nation are threatened enough to cause us to lead a future major, extended COIN campaign,” he continued, “though we very well might provide support to a nation fighting its own COIN campaign, as we continue to do today in Colombia.” (Note that supporting Afghan security forces, whether today or post-2014, was not his example of choice). “The president himself made it clear inhis Defense Strategic Guidance that we will retain some capability for COIN, but only on a limited scale.”
The Vice Chairman? Not so much. Quite honestly, not at all.
And that is the biggest issue facing us when we build our Marine Corps for the future. Our current leadership sees COIN as the end all, be all mission. He is a part of the COIN mafia. But others (myself included) don't think so and if anything see it as a minor role in our mission tool box.
Now we know why the AAV replacement is so low on Amos' to do list. He doesn't think its necessary because we're going to be doing the MARSOC thing into the future.
Many Marines will die because of his error in thinking. I just hope he lives long enough to see how wrong he is.
Well, hopefully, Amos will get an age based retirement really soon.
ReplyDeleteI mean, he is 66 years old. I though 65 was the mandatory retirement party year.
the dude is a general so he'll never actually retire. he'll just give his flawed opinions from another locale....i just hope he's seen in the same light as Pace. a disgrace that never should have gotten the final leadership role he was given.
Deleteah, so even if he retires, he'll be someone's "special consultant"
DeleteIs it possible to reconcile both their ideas within the framework of the future of American military operations? The USMC seems to be focusing on acting as a sort of 9-11 response force capable of responding to a variety of contingency scenarios, while focusing on deploying SP-MAGTF to support indigenous forces. In terms of insurgency, it doesn't seem as if Amos is preparing for another COIN like operation reminiscent of either Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather supporting local forces with trained advisors. Theoretically, couldn't the bulk of the Marine Corps revolve around acting as an augmentation to Navy and Army ground needs during a land war (i.e. Renewed Korean Conflict) or responding to whatever crisis, while maintaining its insurgency slant by deploying SP-MAGTF across the globe? Furthermore, given the rapid motion of modern conventional warfare compared to the slow moving COIN, isn't it less strategically hindering to be prepared more for the former than the latter? We'd have the time to build up and reorient our forces during a renewed insurgency conflict, while we'd have no time to do that in a modern war against a medium power like Iran or North Korea.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm not a Marine, expert, or politician. Just a person with an interest.
--Tom
i think you're making two false assumptions.
Deletethe first is that what we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan are classic counter insurgency ops. they're not. they're nation building operations. all the talk about women's rights, building schools etc...are really outside the pervue of the military. yet they take on the job with glee. that's the dirty secret. we fought two kinds of war. one was COIN the other was nation building. that's what we can't get dragged into again. SOCOM can handle COIN without the Marine Corps OR Army conventional units. they use us for support when they can take care of it in house. God knows they have enough personnel.
the second assumption is that the Marine Corps is an augmentation force. its not. whoever the general was that said that we were acting as a second land army needs to be dragged through the streets by his balls. the Marine Corps classically acts as a kick in the door force or as storm troopers. we filled the lines in WW1 and got kicked out of central europe for our efforts. so the Marines make a landing, the Army flows in and we leave the winning of the war to them. that's how its suppose to be. we aren't equipped to conduct long range land campaigns. that was shown to great effect in the opening of the 2nd gulf war.
so long story short. Amos is jacking up the Marine Corps. its getting too light to do anything but humanitarian assistance, embassy evacuation or light (and I mean real light) nation building. additionally his SP-MAGTF is a certified joke and a slap in the face to Marines everywhere.
Deletethat ignorant bastard has created a formation that is so light it'll get their first and die while waiting for an MEU to save them. That doesn't matter much though because the MEU commander would probably send his Maritime Raid Force to help and they'll be part of the body count.