13Jan05

More Unarmed Marines. When will we ever learn?

US Marines currently assisting in the tsunami relief effort in Asia, as part of a "negotiated arrangement," have been told to deploy with no weapons of any kind, not even pistols! Put another way, these young Marines have been tasked to function as sacrificial lambs, so that politicians can make style points. The area where they're deployed in "unfriendly," by any standard. Anti-Western, Islamic gangs are everywhere, and you can bet they are all armed to the teeth! Would it be too much to ask to let these brave, young American men and women at least have pistols?

The phrase, "unarmed Marine" should be a contradiction of terms! How can politicians look upon these young lives so casually? How many Marines, unable to defend themselves, will have to be hurt or killed or captured, before we see how unforgivably naive this is?

/John