Marines Must Embrace Counter-Insurgency Ops
By Nicholas Wilcox
June 09, 2017
Capstone Essay Contest Winner—Marine
On the night of 6 April 2017, President Donald Trump ordered a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile attack on the Syrian Air Force airfield from which the Syrians had launched a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. 1 Fifty-nine of these missiles destroyed targets at the airbase, including approximately 20 Syrian aircraft. The President did not, however, order the storming of the airbase by a Marine Expeditionary Unit and likely never will exercise such an option in the crises that the United States potentially faces today.
Amphibious warfare is being made irrelevant by new and sophisticated technologies many nations and non-state entities are acquiring and by the changing character of war. The Marines must adapt and refine their identity through training and funding if they are to retain the title as the U.S. premier fighting force.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/06/09/marines_must_embrace_counter-insurgency_ops_111560.html
