Marine chief: Iraq war has diverted training.
Marine chief: Iraq war has diverted training.
The AP reports:
The strains of fighting in Iraq have forced the Marine Corps to forego training in jungle warfare and other skills that are the traditional backbone of the Corps, the Marines’ top general said Wednesday.
“We’re not training for the other kinds” of combat that could arise at short notice, Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, told a group of Marines at the U.S. naval headquarters for the Persian Gulf.
“We are the nation’s shock troops,” he said, stressing that Marines have to be prepared to make amphibious landings and conduct operations that require training they are not getting now because Marine infantry and air units returning from Iraq have time only to get ready for their next tour of duty there.
“We’ve simply got to get back some of those skills,” like firing artillery, he said.
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I guess Venezuela will have to wait awhile then…………
April 4th, 2007 at 7:14 pmSorry Marine Chief,
Don’t you know breaking the greatest military in the world is all part of the plan. Have no fears tho Marine, you’ve been sub-contracted out to Blackwater, hey those guys are making 80k a year, while you make 35, they have the best armored vehicles, choppers, and so on. We paid three times more in no bid contracts hiring a corporate controlled.
Have no fear, Bush has a job for you at Walmart, or maybe a Texaco working behind the register for minimum wage and no benefits.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:15 pmNew Bush Policy for the troops. Just watch 24 on Monday night that’s all the training you need. This invasion is not about helping Iraq it’s about oil and getting control of the leader of Iraq. Next Bush will move on to Iran and Syria. The rest of the Middle East better watch out as Bush/Cheney will take over their so called allies when the time comes. Bush will lie to their face and then invade their country for the oil. No one in the Middle East is safe with Bush on the loose. Friends become enemies as needed with the Bush Policy. Our troops mean nothing as Connie Rice said their deaths are investiments in Bush/Cheney control of oil. Now Bush is sending our troops over to die unprepared or trained. Notice he said he needed the money and the famous SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. We have Satan running the White House and he has some GOP followers.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:22 pmSo what. Clinton diverted training, too.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:24 pmAnd you appear to be one of the children left behind, Jake.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:29 pm(I used to feel your pain….)
another 27% er
April 4th, 2007 at 7:29 pmTrolls need a balanced diet of legitimate anger and witty come backs directed at them from decent people for their health………….I for one, will not feed them. :) You?
April 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pmok, I’ve flipped jake his anchovy for the day, no more…:)
April 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pmClinton strained the Marines by sending them back to Iraq for multiple tours of duty, too. So did Pelosi.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pmAnd a lack of training puts their lives at greater risk.
so much for “caring for the troops”.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:34 pmIt’s that GW Botch thing you know…like a Timex only it just keeps screwing and screwing!!! All of US!!
April 4th, 2007 at 7:36 pmYes, it would be nice if the Marines knew how to fire artillery…
April 4th, 2007 at 7:36 pmSo what. Clinton diverted training, too.
Comment by Jake — April 4, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
Jake = CUA!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 7:40 pmI guess Venezuela will have to wait awhile then…………
Comment by Raven
Ha ha. Exactly. I cant agree with the war talk of this General. Whats the difference? Iraq, Venezuela, Syberia…whatever. This guy is only worry about training settings, not about ending wars or not making them. If the war were in Venezuela or Cuba, he would say: Hey, we should be training in sand dunes…cuz who knows?
April 4th, 2007 at 7:40 pmAnd we didn’t see this coming? In Vietnam the Marine basic training period was reduced by as much as 30% in order to get troops ready for battle faster and look how we did there.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:40 pmDon’t we all feel safer now?
April 4th, 2007 at 7:50 pmBush has squandered our most EFFECTIVE military weapon…The Threat of Military Force. The Quagmire in Iraq has shown the whole world what our military CAN’T DO. We had Saddam in a box…but now truck bombs and IED’s are undermining a $400 billion dollar a year Military. Maybe we should give the Iraqi Govt. nuclear weapons so they can defend themselves from insurgents (sarcasm off)
April 4th, 2007 at 8:11 pmComment by Thomas — April 4, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
…and sent there with rifles that jammed…and ph*cked up orders…and ph*cked up undertrained officers…and a homeland that was giving up on the whole bullsh!t scenario!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 8:19 pm…not to mention an Enemy that saw themselves as patriots defending their country from Invaders… and not as Dominoes.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:32 pmClinton strained the Marines by sending them back to Iraq for multiple tours of duty, too. So did Pelosi.
Comment by Fake Jake
LOL!
April 4th, 2007 at 8:35 pmUmmm…Jake, you are talking out of your a$$
As for the artillery, tell that to the guys firing the 155s up the road from me.
But we DO need to get “back to the basics”.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:38 pmBut we DO need to get “back to the basicsâ€.
Comment by hacker bob
Just how basic, Robert? Are we talking scratching and picking lice, or hunting down the great Mammoth? :-D
April 4th, 2007 at 8:51 pmFor those, not in the know, the 155 is an IBM computer designed in the 60’s. Correct model number 2155.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:53 pm“But… but… Clinton! Pelosi! Carter! FDR!”
April 4th, 2007 at 9:01 pm~Comment by Jake
#2
I have to agree that Bushco just looks at he military as an expendable tool. Blackwater is their model, and also their dream, a private elite force bound my money and political ties to a single party – the Republicans. They have been essentially purging the military since day one (remember Shinseki?). If Republicans had remained in control, a bill or concept, based on the vaunted free market, would eventually have floated to turn US military management over to someone like Blackwater. If they can get back in power, why would they not introduce such a bill?
This is the tactic they used with the public school system. Break its funding, point to the eventual failure as proof of it inferiority, then claim that the private sector can do better. They did the same thing with the prison system.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pmThe point made is that artillery training has been shortened. The full course involves training in the effect of the Coriolis Force at different ranges, directions and latitudes as well as how to pull a lanyard.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pmthe Bush plan is to break the military, then privatize it to their cronies at Blackwater.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:17 pmComment by WaltTheMan — April 4, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
Yes, There needs to be more training, the point was not lost.
And the 155 I am talking about is the M-198 155mm Howitzer, not the IBM 2155 (but you knew that).
Comment by Zooey — April 4, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
Mastodons, actually.
Seriously, more mountain warfare training and jungle training would be nice. After all, you never know what tomorrow may bring.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:23 pmhacker bob; boy, what a relief. I often disagree with you, but you seem much brighter than the usual run-of-the-mill trolls that plague us.
other trolls, please get an eary start on writing your letters to Santa Claus asking for some smarts.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:32 pmComment by Uncle Ho — April 4, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
ummm….Thanks?
April 4th, 2007 at 9:33 pmhacker bob; boy, what a relief. I often disagree with you, but you seem much brighter than the usual run-of-the-mill trolls that plague us.
other trolls, please get an early start on writing your letters to Santa Claus asking for some smarts.
sorry about the double post. $*%&^# typos.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:35 pmMastodons, actually.
Impressive. :D
Seriously, more mountain warfare training and jungle training would be nice. After all, you never know what tomorrow may bring.
Comment by hacker bob
You know you’re never getting that while we have a “Pres” who can’t see past the end of his nose.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:38 pm#28 – hacker_bob
April 4th, 2007 at 9:44 pmIn my 155 comment, I was only trying to point out that terms that you treat so nonchalantly can mean other things to different people. If you had simply said howitzers, it would be immediately clear to all. Since I designed the I/O channel hardware controls for the IBM S/370 Model 155, it was the first thing that popped into my mind.
Zooey; That is one hell of a long nose, much longer than Pinocchio’s. Try another comparison plz.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:49 pmThat is one hell of a long nose, much longer than Pinocchio’s. Try another comparison plz.
Comment by Uncle Ho
Oops! Should I drink more, or less? :D
Let’s see…..he can’t see any further than the end of Karl Rove’s dick.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:53 pmHeh.
Comment by Uncle Ho — April 4, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
But I thought all of Bush’s bravura was a compensation for that ‘other comparison’!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:55 pmNo way am I checking Rove’s pants. That would be waaaaaay above and beyond the call of duty. I wouldn’t do that for my own mother.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:57 pmWalt, I knew what you meant. Occupational hazard. Sorry.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:06 pmUncle Ho & Briseadh na Faire –
I’m laughing my ass off here. :D
April 4th, 2007 at 10:06 pmZooey, I would be willing however, to drop a grenade in Rove’s pants. : )
April 4th, 2007 at 10:07 pmZooey & BNF, I’m laughing my ass off too.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:09 pmZooey, I would be willing however, to drop a grenade in Rove’s pants. : )
Comment by Uncle Ho
And I would be willing to watch you do it. :D
April 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pmWalt, I knew what you meant. Occupational hazard. Sorry.
Comment by hacker bob
Robert,
Would you drop a grenade down Karl Rove’s pants — while we watch?
:-D
April 4th, 2007 at 10:19 pmSince I designed the I/O channel hardware controls for the IBM S/370 Model 155, it was the first thing that popped into my mind.
Comment by WaltTheMan — April 4, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
Walt, them was the good old days. Banks of tape drives spinning-disk drives bigger than a washing machine. I worked at TI and we had two in one room-all on raised floors for the cables and the room was colder than a you know what.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:21 pmComment by Zooey — April 4, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
It would probably drop out of his pantleg. Nothing to stop it.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:25 pmIt would probably drop out of his pantleg. Nothing to stop it.
Comment by hacker bob
Then we’d have to scramble for cover, and he’d laugh.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:35 pmThat’s no good….
THIS FOOLISH “MODERNIZATION” STARTED WITH DUMBSFailed, AS SOME OF YOU MAY REMEMBER—-SPECIALIZED, FAST-MOVING, ULTIMATELY USELESS STRATEGIES OF WARFARE—-REMEMBER, SOMETIMES THE OLD WAYS ARE BEST, NO MATTER WHAT THESE SMART ASSES MAY SAY ABOUT “THE NEW ARMY”—LEARN FROM YA MISTAKES, BOYS!!!! STOP WASTING AMERICAN SERVICEMENS’ LIVES FOR YA OUTLANDISH VANITY AND “BRIGHT”(read DUMB)IDEAS!!!!!
April 4th, 2007 at 10:43 pm#44 – Joefriday,
April 4th, 2007 at 10:55 pmYou must not forget the inverter/converters that screeched at 16.8 KHz and PS6 which melted at about 16 installations because they forgot to include a CB in the supply or its feed. I was not in the power group, but about three persons got discharged for that oversight.