Spent time debating a few staff officers on Force Design 2030...they're so predictable when it comes to defending this flawed concept...

 I spent a few debating a few staff officers on Force Design 2030.  They're so damn predictable.

I don't know how this happened but a few individuals inside the Marine Corps put in place by the previous Commandant (thank God Berger is gone...no more Elmer Fudd's please Jesus!) managed to tilt the entire organization into a weird place.

No one knows where the next war will be.  I personally think it will be resource rich Africa.  Force Design 2030 is totally irrelevant to a fight there.  Same with the Middle East and same in Europe.  All this talk of a Stand In Force conducting Recon/Counter Recon is insanity on a plate.  The idea that a force that has 18 anti-ship missiles will be able to affect a naval battle is also batshit crazy.

Worse is the fantasy that the US will be able to defend Taiwan from a Chinese assault.  How that became such a big talking point in the Pentagon is beyond me but here we are.  The reality is easy to see.  Just look at a map.

Yeah.  China is 105 miles away from Taiwan.  105 miles!  No way in hell they can't pop over there and get it done with a quickness...before our policy makers even decide to defend or not.  Before they've had their first cup of coffee Chinese Paratroopers and Marines will be on the island pushing to the Taiwanese capitol.

If we even tried we would be throwing lives and gear away in a war that cannot be done.

The distance for us is simply too great and China is too close to their target.

But back to the staff officers.

They have a few chestnuts they always fall back too.

1.  Neller stated the force was not organized or equipped to fight future wars.

They never tell you that Neller never stated what that future force would look like. Additionally they don't tell you that Neller opposes FD2030.

2. They state that the former SecDef stated that China was the pacing threast.

They're talking about Mattis.  They don't tell you that Mattis is opposed to FD2030.

3.  They state that they have skin in the game and that they support FD2030.

Not sure what they mean by that.  I've had skin in that game, I'm still part of the tribe (or at least that was once the belief that once equals always) and I care about the Marine Corps.  Do they think that I don't care. That as a private citizen my voice/opinion doesn't count?

4.  They strangely fall back on the idea that we're pissed about Gays/Trans in the military, women in combat and other social issues and we're picking on FD2030 because we can't bitch about what really bothers us.

This one is kinda painful.  They went there and they seem to be following a political playbook with this.  That is disturbing.  The Marine Corps has been politicized to this extent now?  They're actually picking up Democrat talking points?

5.  They have the intel and the intel backs this plan.

This one is mystifying.  We all have a general overview of whats going on from open source info.  China has regional superiority.  It ain't rocket science to see that. They also have the US Navy in a hurt locker.  Don't take a crystal ball to see that. But the idea that this plan will save the Navy is batshit stupid.  Congress has the purse.  If intel is that bad then we should be seeing a massive plus up in the Navy's budget.  Air Force too.  But we aren't.  Money talks.  Congress agitates about the Chinese threat but they're not putting money behind the effort to correct things.

But the worse thing is that they planned this from the start.

They made a decision that they would ram this thru and that it would be there way or the highway.  They made a choice to define the Marine Corps as something different and didn't care about pushback.

This plan that they declare is so perfect is unable to stand up to scrutiny.

Deep down inside they know they fucked up but don't have the courage to course correct.

FD2030 has become a self licking ice cream cone.

So many careers are linked to this thing that to do the right thing for the Marine Corps and the nation has become a thing of personal risk.  From the small talk I've had its obvious that these arrogant clowns would rather the nation suffer than for them to suffer.

That is why the Marine Corps is gonna get its shit pushed in during the next war.  Pray for those Marines you know on active duty.  They're gonna die ugly.  The designers of FD2030 have basically guaranteed it.