via Stars and Stripes.
The U.S. military wants to establish a permanent presence of up to 3,000 Marines at a Spanish air base that now serves as a temporary host for a task force of crisis-response troops supporting U.S. Africa Command, a Spanish newspaper said.So we have our normal MEU deployments, UDP to Okinawa and now Australia...and now we're adding in Spain. This is in addition to the Marines that will be sent to the new front in the war on terror in Iraq, FAST Company, MARSOC, Marine Security Guard Force, Recruiting, Drill Instructor Duty, Instructor Duty at SOI....How the hell is the Marine Corps going to supply enough people for all these taskings before the force burns out?
In early December, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued a letter to Spanish authorities requesting permission to keep the Morón, Spain-based Marine quick-reaction force in the country, the newspaper El Pais reported last week.
According to the paper, the U.S. plan is to maintain a presence of roughly 850 Marines in Morón but allow for a surge of up to 3,000 troops in the event of a crisis.
The unit, a Marine Air-Ground Task Force focused on crisis response, formed in 2013 in the wake of the attacks on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. The team is mobilized periodically in connection with potential threats in Africa. The unit has supported U.S. evacuation efforts in South Sudan and Libya and has provided logistical support for U.S. anti-Ebola efforts in western Africa.
In March, the Defense Department announced it would boost its presence in Spain by adding more Marines to the MAGTF, which was slated to increase from 500 to 850 Marines.
The military’s current basing deal is expected to expire in April, which means a temporary extension could happen before a long-term basing agreement is reached, according to El Pais.
How can a force of approx 175,000 support this many deployments especially since the powers that be have been shedding Infantry Battalions the way a snake sheds its skin?
We're gonna need a bunch more Marines or else this isn't going to work.
Someone didn't think this through.
Off topic but an offshoot of Solomon's periodic Economic articles-
ReplyDeleteThe Vibrant Gujrat Summit here is bringing in some nice New Year's cheer. If Govt. sources are to be believed then MoU (memorandum of understanding) worth USD400 Billion have been signed by companies and Govt.'s both foreign and domestic for doing business in India.
And I'd like to thank the USA for being our Strategic partner in this summit as US companies themselves have promised 40+ billion worth of investment. Apart from IBM and CISCO there is also Abbot, GM, Ford etc.
A special thanks to the Western Financial world for enabling and transporting soo much of this wealth onto our shores.
Sarcasm off. Reality on.
While the Vibrant Gujrat Economic Summit 2015 was certainly an effrot in the right direction....we are still a long way off. Now we have to see how much of that 400 billion will materialize over the next 5 yeas. I bet William over here will be able to provide us a much better econimic reality of this.
its a hail mary pass. they're trying to find new consumers for their products and since China didn't work out (they still save too much) they're hoping that India will be the next people bitten with the consumerism bug. the US citizens are tapped out and the few rich are unable to sustain the economy. same applies to Europe. Asia as a whole are in the same boat. Africa and the Middle East are only good for natural resources and outside of that they're both basket cases.
DeleteIndia is the last hope to make this globalization scheme work. the attack in France is starting to convince everyone that maybe globalization and all it brings is just more trouble than its worth. quite honestly i expect European integration to take a huge hit once the people in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Scandanavian country all decide that open borders even through Europe are just too dangerous...even if it slows down trade in the sector.
Whats a hail mary pass?
DeleteOn the EU integration thing.....i am expecting a "Battle of Toulouse 721AD" type scenario where a big incident is going to spark an awakening in EU. Which way that awakeing goes is upto anyones guess. I am thinking.....definitely a more closed society as far as immigration from "certain" countries is concerned. But its all for the want of that one big incident. You had 9/11, we had Mumbai amongst others, Russia had Beslan/Opera house siege.....and I thought EU already had London underground but I guess they are waiting for a more serious incident. Madrid bombing doesnt count as that was the "enemy within" and not enemy outside.
Aahha....the power of google.
DeleteNow I know what that phrase Hail marry pass was.
I guess our equivalent of it would be "Chake de phatte" or something like it. Is that about right KSingh ?
This thought just struck me. All those world leaders in one place showing support for the French. And then Solomon's post previously about Terrorists and multiple attacks. What if some day in the future a deliberate attack takes place to call excatly this type of gathering.......but wait. The Final attack is yet to come and will be executed at that very moment when all these leaders are posing for their Photo opportunity. That attack doesnt nececcerily have to be on the VIP's. Just in the city/country they are in will be damaging enough on the entire collecterate. Think of George W Bush when he was in that elementry school when the WTC attack happened. And magnify it a 100 times.
ReplyDeletei'm waiting for the G-8 summit to get hit...or even the UN.
DeleteExcept for the fact that the G8 is a long planned regular affair. No point attacking something on the books for a while. The way these terrorists use and twist the media with their propaganda......they will deliberatly try to get a gathering of leaders arranged in an unplanned way because of an earlier terrorist strike (like this) and then blow up in their face. Off coure....Putin will always escape looking even tougher and meaner than before in this scenario.
DeleteYeah let's cut more of budget and numbers of Marines... it's look like Pentagon soon will command an ghost army's on the digital map.
ReplyDelete