Treaty of Tripoli - Is the US A Christian Nation? Hmm...

[Al B. Sure!]

Whoah now... Army bashing the Marine Corps? Maybe if the Marine Corps had 1.5 million troops and the appropriate funding, the Marine Corps could fight a world war.

Oh wait... The Marine Corps did. Against the Japanese for one...

[Sava]

Aw that's sweet. Did you tuck each other in and kiss each other good night too?

[DRoseDARs]

You go, girlfriend!

[DRoseDARs]

Aw ****, I meant to post that in the spam thread. Oh well, still works. The two of you are just too cute.

[Sava]

she needs some proactive

[BeBMan]

Aw ****, I meant to post that in the spam thread. Oh well, still works. The two of you are just too cute.

I regard every thread as a potential spam thread

[Sava]

[Elok]

Hi, Sava!

WRT OP, I suggest you put it on a lolcat somehow. The Tripoli treaty isn't particularly compelling evidence compared to the fact that half the founding fathers were deists anyway. And the "what would Washington do" argument in turn is no match for the "if we want what Washington wanted, why the ever-living **** are black women allowed to vote?" argument.

[Riesstiu IV]

If America's a Christian nation, why is the president Muslin?

[Whoha]

Because all power was moved to the Shadow Government complete with the Shadow President.

[Al B. Sure!]

The Marines are for fights to small for the Army. Think about it. They're supposed to fight wars which are supposed to be very short but if it gets to big, if the Marines just can't handle it, then they call in the Army. The Army if for long term extended conflicts and the Marines can't handle that sort of war.

cough

[David Floyd]

WRT OP, I suggest you put it on a lolcat somehow. The Tripoli treaty isn't particularly compelling evidence compared to the fact that half the founding fathers were deists anyway.

The fact that many - but not most - Founders were deists in no way convinces fundies of anything. The Treaty of Tripoli is pretty black and white.

And the "what would Washington do" argument in turn is no match for the "if we want what Washington wanted, why the ever-living **** are black women allowed to vote?" argument.

What does the Treaty of Tripoli have to do with George Washington?

[David Floyd]

Oh wait... The Marine Corps did. Against the Japanese for one...

Erm, no, not really. At its height in 1945, the US Marine Corps consisted of 6 Marine Divisions, each supported by a Marine Air Wing, organized into 3 Marine Amphibious Corps (forget the exact title). In other words, less than an Army-sized formation, of which the US deployed 3 to the Pacific (the 6th, LtGen Eichelberger commanding, the 8th, LtGen Walter Krueger commanding, and the 10th, LtGen Simon Bolivar Buckner commanding), in addition to various independent formations.

It is true that the Marines provided the assault troops for many of the island campaigns, starting with Guadalcanal and continuing through Okinawa and Iwo Jima (although these operations were so large that the initial invasions were not Marine-only shows), but the Pacific War was not winnable using only 6 Marine Divisions.

[N35t0r]

It is true that the Marines provided the assault troops for many of the island campaigns, starting with Guadalcanal and continuing through Okinawa and Iwo Jima (although these operations were so large that the initial invasions were not Marine-only shows), but the Pacific War was not winnable using only 6 Marine Divisions.

It is in HoI 2

[Al B. Sure!]

There were plenty of islands taken by only Marine forces (Peleliu, Saipan, the Marshall islands, Iwo Jima, etc.) and the Marines were the primary force (the tip of the spear so the speak) throughout the entire war, Army forces being used primarily in support and for consolidation/mopping up, because, as you said, there's just plain more of them. The Marine Corps was also used as the primary battle force against the Germans in the First World War and again in Korea (the defense of Pusan then the Inchon landings).

The point is you can't expect the Marine Corps to fight a multi-front war against large countries with its limited size and resources. Of course the Army can do it... they had better be able to do it with 1.5 million troops (the second largest army on the planet) and $225 billion a year.

Pound for pound though, it's no comparison. Who does much more with much less?

“The Marine Corps pulls down about 6 percent of the department’s budget,” Conway said. “For that 6 percent, you get about 15, 16 percent of the maneuver battalions; you get 15 percent of the attack aircraft [and] you get 19 percent of the attack helicopters. The average Marine costs the country about $20,000 less than the next closest service man in other services.”