The Marines are weighing having troops hitch rides on foreign warships [Video]

30 Jun, 2015 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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Okay, this is just bug-freaking-nuts. I’ve seen some moronic things come out of this Administration, but this one takes the maritime cake. The Marines are now weighing placing our troops on foreign vessels, because we don’t have enough ships. Hmmm… Obama had our fleet reduced by 50% and now we don’t have enough ships. Imagine that. God help us if we wind up in a hot war. Obama has stripped the military so severely, we will be hurtin’ for certain. I, personally, believe this was the plan all along. To take us down several pegs and put us on our knees militarily. This is not only embarrassing, it’s treasonous.

From Fox News:

The Marines are weighing whether to have members hitch a ride on foreign warships, citing a shortage of U.S. Navy vessels due to recent budget cuts — raising bipartisan security concerns about the leverage this could give other countries.

A key concern is whether a warship from a host nation could deny Marines permission to come ashore.

“Ceding our amphibious ships to other countries — it’s almost silly and I can’t believe it is even an option for the Navy,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who served as a Marine in Iraq. “Now we are going to have to ask other countries, much less financially stable countries than America, to loan us their ships so that we can base our Marines on their ships. It’s almost embarrassing.”

The Navy currently has 30 amphibious transport ships to carry Marines, but estimates it would need 38 to cope with rising crises across North Africa. It won’t reach that number until 2028 under current budget constraints.

“We are a maritime nation, and we communicate across the world through our sea services, and … the size of the Navy right now is way too low,” said former Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who is weighing a presidential run. Webb was a decorated Marine infantry officer in Vietnam and was appointed Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan.

“It was 568 ships when I resigned as Secretary of the Navy. It’s down to about 280 right now,” he said.

Since 1775, the U.S. Marine Corps has prided itself on being a self-reliant expeditionary force from the sea. Currently, there are thousands of Marines deployed on U.S. warships around the world who are ready to go ashore at a moment’s notice.

In recent years, there have been situations — like the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi — that made clear that quick reaction forces were not close enough to be able to help. In the wake of Benghazi, the Marines set up a land-based hub in Rota, Spain, but even that is thought to be too far from certain sites in North Africa.

“We don’t know when a crisis will come, or where it will occur, but an initiative that increases the interoperability of maritime forces will prove of enormous benefit in the years to come,” Lt. Col. Gregory P. DeMarco, Marine Forces regional planner for Europe and Africa, said in a statement defending the latest proposal.

The current plan would place about 100 Marines onboard allied warships, along with three or four Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.

No decision has yet been made by the Marines, who are currently considering the proposal.

If we station troops on foreign vessels, what happens if they decide to commandeer those troops? What if a warship from a host nation could deny Marines permission to come ashore or intervene in a conflict? Just who will command whom? Let’s go all whackadoodle here and just ponder if the powers-that-be were trying to take our military global, would they be doing anything differently? You know, placing our troops under UN rule. Wouldn’t this be the first step? This is a disgrace, pure and simple. I’m ashamed it has come to this. By the way, regarding Benghazi and other conflicts there, it wasn’t that help was too far away… it was that they were told to stand down and not allowed to help. Having too few ships and farming out our Marines is just another way to destroy America – all of it is on purpose.