[Salon] ‘Shifting threats,’ drones, F35s the stars of new Marine recruiting ad

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

From the DOD Early Bird new site, by Defense News. If so-called military “experts” writing for The American Conservative and Quincy Institute, had read this during the Trump administration, and today, they would know better than to write or say such inane things as “Trump ending the endless wars,” or General Berger, USMC, is “fighting the blob,” as they ran articles saying such nonsense, or such duplicity. Making Berger into a virtual rock star as they did, one would think reading their duplicitous articles that Berger had become a second Smedley Butler!  

But here’s an update on David Berger’s new, "less-interventionist, anti-Blob”  Marine Corps that TAC and QI so celebrated. I’d just shared with a fellow VFP member, in criticizing a few pro-war “Schachtmanites” in the group (yes, I do criticize the “Left”), how "I was in the last training company in Marine Infantry to go through “Vietnam Village” at Camp Pendleton (don’t know where the East Coast Marines were in that but I presume doing the same. And in 1972, my Marine Reserve unit’s training was in the desert at 29 Palms, so they were covering all bets). After us, it was being converted to a “Latin American Village,” or maybe “Central American Village” (no, they didn’t issue us Zippo lighters to burn them down, but that would have made it more realistic. But they needed the material to replicate the next Third World “enemy” village we were already preparing to engage, I would guess. It was as if the USMC had foreknowledge, so far in advance, that we would shortly be getting more directly involved in wars in Latin America! Which of course they did, and we did, though those would be proxy wars as they turned out.”

So giving Trump and Berger" their due,” plans were well advanced under them for the coming war on China (and Russia, with Marines in expanded rotations to Scandinavia as well), as can be seen in the focus and change of direction of the USMC moving to the China perimeter under those two in preparation for offensive operations, if one looks at them with a “critical” viewpoint. Meaning analytically objective, instead of gushing over them as TAC’s and QI’s "non-interventionist Conservatives,” now identified as the “New Right,” did, and still do over Trump.  

But here’s where the USMC “Great Power competition” accelerated under Trump/Berger, and left the "door wide open” for the Biden militarists to follow:

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/10/the-new-national-defense-strategy-keeps-the-pentagons-focus-locked-on-china/

BLUF: "The 2018 National Defense Strategy marked a major shift for the Pentagon as it pivoted toward the challenge of great power competition against China and Russia after more than a decade of being focused on counterterrorism in the Middle East.

"Largely, the 2022 NDS doubles down on that framework, naming China as the “pacing challenge” for the department, with Russia ranked as an “acute threat” that is “immediate and sharp,” as seen in its ongoing war with Ukraine and nuclear saber rattling. North Korea, Iran, and violent extremist organizations followed on the list of threats."

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2022/10/27/shifting-threats-drones-f35s-the-stars-of-new-marine-recruiting-ad/?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d

‘Shifting threats,’ drones, F35s the stars of new Marine recruiting ad

Irene LoewensonOct 27, 11:37 AM

In 1990, a Marine Corps recruiting ad alluded to close combat ― depicting a knight jousting enemies on a chess board.

But the threats shown in the Corps’ 2022 recruiting ad are different.

With a new commercial featuring an evacuation, a swarm of drones and precision fires, the Corps is making a statement about what it sees as the future of conflict.

The video highlights elements of Marine leadership’s Force Design 2030 initiative, which seeks to shift the branch’s focus more toward littoral operations and reconnaissance instead of land warfare.

The commercial begins with a coastal city crumbling to the ground. Marines rush to evacuate citizens, as a Marine’s voice reassures them in the background, “You’re going to be all right.”

“The future is threatened by enemies often unrelenting, unexpected and unpredictable,” the narrator says. “In the midst of an uncertain and evolving world, the need for Marines to defeat these shifting threats is critical.”

In the next scene, a group of Marines troop across a beach and through a jungle, alert for threats. Above them, birds rocket into the sky and morph into enemy drones.

But the Marines are ready. They take down three drones in quick succession with a Marine Air Defense Integrated System.

And as the scenery turns into wintry mountains, it becomes clear that the Marines have drones of their own. They use one to scope out an enemy position, which a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System soon takes out.

Cut to a naval warfare scenario: After a Marine scopes out an enemy ship, an F-35 drops its payload and destroys it.

This commercial wraps up as many of its predecessors do, with Marines in dress uniform, in this case holding the U.S. and Marine Corps flags.

“When there are battles to win for America’s future, there is one constant: Marines,” the narrator concludes.

The ad comes not even a month into the new fiscal year, amid recruiting challenges for the military.

Thanks to high retention in fiscal year 2022 that meant it required fewer new troops, the Marine Corps was the only branch other than the Space Force to meet its recent accession goals. But it didn’t meet them by much.

“This new advertising campaign conveys a single premise: Against ever-evolving threats, our Nation’s greatest asset is the adaptable skillset of Marines who fight and win,” the Marine Corps said in a press release announcing the commercial.

The commercial was released online on Thursday and will air on television on Saturday at the football game between the rival Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, according to the press release.

Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.

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