Read how US Marines are being reshaped for the China menace
Key takeaways:
- The leaders emphasised the US Marines to the Pacific in a White House meeting.
The US Marines to the Pacific were emphasised in a White House conference between the leaders of the US and Japan.
But behind the scenes, this revived emphasis on Asia has sparked a fierce dispute within one of its most fabled army forces, notes defence critic Jonathan Marcus.
A dispute among leaders of the US Marines:
A furious family row exploded in the US military’s most sacred institution, the US Marine Corps.
A host of its ex-senior commanders are lining up to shoot the existing leadership over plans for its reinvention.
At issue is a plan to adapt the service for a potential conflict against China – a project dubbed Force Design 2030.
Since its beginning, this plan has been under attack, with a cohort of retired generals taking the distinctive approach of going to push to air their frustrations.
Former senior officers have frequently been meeting, speaking at conferences and think tanks, and creating their alternative to a project which they see as a tragedy for the Marine Corps future.
One famous analyst is the retired US Navy Secretary and ex-Senator for Virginia, Jim Webb, who served as a Marine official in the Vietnam War and headed for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2015.
Reporting in the Wall Street Journal, he explained Force Design 2030 as “insufficiently tested” and “inherently flawed”.
He alerted that the plan “raised serious queries about the learning and long-term threat of dramatic declines in force structure, weapons systems and workforce levels in units that would take regular casualties in most combat scenarios”.
So what has got them all so upset?
It was founded in 2020 by Marine Corps Commandant General David H Berger.
The program is planned to provide the Marines with a potential dispute with China in the Indo-Pacific area rather than counter-insurgency battles like Iraq and Afghanistan.
