Legacy building via friends at Wall Street Journal.

Its no secret that I'm not a fan of General Amos.  What I didn't know is that I would lose confidence in the Wall Street Journal due to a fluff piece that is obviously being used as a legacy building device.  Read the article here but some tidbits...

The new reaction unit, described by Gen. Amos in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, is the outgrowth of an effort to remake the Marine Corps into a global "911" response force.

The USMC was calling itself America's 911 force since the 1990's.  Remake it?  Really?  Seriously?

Over the past four years, Gen. Amos has sought to transform the Marine Corps into a force focused on crisis response. Under pressure to trim spending and reorient the force, he has slimmed down headquarters units, shed tanks, and told the Corps to be ready to respond at a moment's notice.

Wow.  But wait it gets better.

"After our ambassador was killed, we sat back as a Marine Corps and asked what could we have done, what could we have offered the president," Gen. Amos said. "We didn't have any forces in the Mediterranean. We said we will build…a crisis response team."

This part is particularly annoying.  Forces were available (I stand by that...don't bother arguing, I won't debate it....I consider the issue settled) but decision makers both military and civilian failed to respond.

This fluff piece is legacy building and its obvious that the SPMAGTF-CR is what Amos is hanging his hat on as "leaving the Marine Corps better than he found it".

The problem is obvious though.  The concept as constructed is not sustainable.  The ops tempo will break the force unless they scale them back drastically.

The only good news?  Amos is gone soon.  Real soon.  Thank God!