UPDATE! There is a quiet fury going on with many Marines because as you can read in this story, officials keep giving more details of this "incident"...via Marine Corps Times...
Marine embassy security guards smashed personal weapons with sledgehammers and scattered them before departing Yemen as the U.S. Embassy was being evacuated this week, officials with Marine Corps Headquarters said.No matter how you dress this up, this looks bad.
The officials offered new details of the Marines' departure in the wake of differing reports about what had become of personal weapons the troops had to leave behind before departing the country via the airport at Sanaa. A Pentagon spokesman told reporters Wednesday that Marines had handed over the weapons to Yemeni officials before boarding commercial aircraft for departure, while staff with the Sanaa airport told the Associated Press that Houthi rebels had seized U.S. Embassy vehicles, some with weapons inside.
A Marine official with knowledge of the movement told Marine Corps Times Wednesday that all personal and crew-served weapons had been rendered inoperable, but could not address how they had been made so or how they were disposed of before the Marines departed.
(Original Post)
Something strange is going on when it comes to the USMC core capability of embassy evacuation.
If you've been following the news lately the current controversy (for the portion of the American public that pays attention...probably around 3%) is that Marine Security Guards had there weapons seized by rebels in Yemen. Quite honestly I was gonna run with it and even posted about it under the title "WTF!"...but took it down. I needed more info before I went high and to the right. Now we have this from Marine Corps Times....
Officials with the Sanaa airport told the Associated Press earlier today that Houthi rebels seized more than 25 official U.S. vehicles in the wake of the hasty departure of embassy staff, some with personal weapons left inside.Read the entire story here, but I've got to ask the question.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters that the embassy's Marine security guard detachment destroyed larger weapons, including machine guns, and added that he believed they had turned over personal weapons to Yemeni officials because they could not take them on commercial flights.
But the Marine official, who asked that he not be identified because he was unauthorized to discuss the situation, said no working Marine weapons, whether crew-served or personal rifles and sidearms, were seized or handed over as the troops departed.
"No Marines handed over a functional weapon to anybody," the official said.
Why are embassy evacuation suddenly becoming more chaotic? Is this a State Dept problem? Are they so enamored with "appearance" that they prevent the orderly evacuation of personnel from threatened areas? Is this a USMC issue? Is the desire to validate the SPMAGTF-CR so great that instead of utilizing capabilities that are already built into the force we're jumping through hoops to use them in missions they aren't suited for?
Is it a combination?
Regardless think back to the in many ways failed Bush and Clinton administrations. You would never have heard a story about Marines leaving weapons behind while evacuating an embassy.
Sidenote. Unless they used thermite or white phosphorus there is no such thing as making weapons inoperable by simply removing components. We're getting fed some feel good bullshit on this one.
Sidenote 1. Spiking barrels, smashing receivers etc...do not render a weapon unusable. I stand by the statement that melting them down in place is the only real way to ensure that the enemy can't use the weapons against you in the future (and that's ignoring the fact that the scrap metal will probably be used in some form of explosive device even if you are successful). Come on people this isn't hard to figure out....I mean hell, show me an AR sitting in the trash with a busted receiver and if I'm bored enough I can bring it back to life with a simple, unregulated parts kit!
