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Subject: Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?
towgunner1960    10/3/2003 10:46:39 PM
I submit that it might have been more efficient to send British troops north to Baghdad instead of the Marine Corps, for the following reasons; U.S. Army and U.K. troops have trained together to fight the type of war that was fought for the last 50 odd years. (Mechanized warfare). The Marine Corps armor, excepting the M1 are totally unsuited for RAPID desert armored fighting, i.e. aav, lav and M198. U.K. and U.S. Army are equipped exactly the way you need to be to fight this type of war,(M1, M2-3, M109), (Challenger, Warrier, AS90). This gives them the ability to shoot and scoot, and to slug it out if needed. The Marine Corps has never trained with the Army to fight massive Soviet style forces the way U.K. and U.S. Army have. It might have been better for USMC to have taken over the British role, attacking southern Iraq, where they could have worked as a combined arms team with naval support, the way they have for over 200+ years. Long range desert armored warfare is not a Marine mission with the equipment and the training they have. If they want to equip themselves the way the Army does to fight this type of war, then they risk losing capability to fight the littorial type of war that they are so magnificant at. This is no way a slight against the Marines, who I have trained with and admire. But what nation can afford to have two armies? If they insist on trying to compete against the Army for that mission, (mech warfare), then what need is there for a Marine Corps? You might as well combine them with the Army.
 
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Final Historian    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/3/2003 10:54:55 PM
As I understand it, the Brits were chosen to take and handle Basra because they had less logistical support than the US did. I agree with your assement, The Brits would have been better off heading toward Baghdad, and the USMC should have kept near the coast, where it is supposed to fight. Still, for a force that has never fought so far inland before, the USMC did the job.
 
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WinsettZ    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/5/2003 8:30:01 PM
I thought it was just pro-American propoganda-Baghdad liberators. They didn't want to get beaten by another nation's army, like the Russians did in Kosovo beating the US to Pristina. :D
 
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the Editor    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/8/2003 3:38:10 PM
If I remember correctly, the Marines were the ones who spent the most time fighting in the Towns. They went from town to town, and fought an urban warfare, while the Mechanized Army just went around the towns, where all the resistance was. The Marines were the only ones that could have done that job. I am not quite sure what The British Marines main role is, but the our Marins, are trained heavily in Urban warfare, they were the perfect force for the job.
 
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northenguy    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/8/2003 3:49:34 PM
Nothing works like success!!
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/14/2003 10:21:19 AM
The RMs are also trained to fight in urban combat and being a commando force they would be better suited to hit the Iraqis hard than the USMC but a larger force (the USMC) would be needed to hold the ground. That's why the RMs were used in Basra and Um Qasr (spelling?) to raid specific targets and then get out, in the case of Um Qasr the USMC were used aswell to hold the ground. I think the USMC and RMs should be kept together because they compliment each other well.
 
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Dancing Johnny    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/15/2003 2:56:42 AM
I don't know if it was planned this way, but my thoughts on why the Marines were sent through the area that they went was because it had the potential for more water obsticals. Besides the two major rivers, there were numerious canals, marshes, lakes, and if Saddam had decided to open the dams and flood the area, the marines would have been better equiped becauce of their amphibious vehicles to handle the situation. As it happened, they only had to make one armed river assault because of a blown bridge. And with the AAV's you're ready to cross NOW without having to bring up additional equipment. The Army on the other hand, if bridges had been blown, they could have continued traveling north thru the desert until they were just outside Baghdad.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/15/2003 8:22:57 PM
I think it was probobly just because the US, being the ones who started the war, had to be the ones to take the brunt. Otherwise it would seem it dragged it's allies into a war and made them do all the work.
 
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macawman    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   10/16/2003 12:19:46 PM
I think D Johnny got it right. The Corps was best suited for the terrain and mission. Plus the natural rivaly between the Army and the Corps spured both forces to be more aggresive. The factor that most (likely) delayed the Marines closing on Baghdad was lack of logistic support vs amply logistics for the Army. The Navy's logistics has never supported a Marine Corp size force that had advanced that far or that fast.
 
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ambush    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   6/7/2004 10:27:31 PM
How about it being just a question of manpower. If Baghdad had turned into a house to house fight like many expected you would have needed a lot more trigger pulling boots on the ground. Army Mech units are notoriously short of dimsounts and even an Army light Inatry unit has fewer grunts than its Marine Counterpart. A Marine Infantry Battalion has about 1/3 more grunts and considerably more firepower than an Army Light/Airborne/Air Assault battalion and even more grunts when compared to a Mech unit.
 
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Sup3r64    RE:Was the USMC the appropriate force to send to Baghdad?   9/15/2004 12:19:25 AM
The Marines will always get the job done under any circumstances. ERR
 
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