Clown Commandant

Wanted: a leader with a brain

In recent comments at the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute’s National Defense Forum, General Eric Smith, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, stated that America could defeat China in a war because of our combat experience in the Middle East.

“The advantage lies with us because our last combat was captured on somebody’s iPhone 14... The Chinese’ last combat was captured on oil and canvas, and they should not forget that... I would not undersell the value that our combat experience brings to this fight.”

Smith went on to praise America’s “warrior culture”:

“It is easy to bluster. But it’s another thing when you actually have to go toe-to-toe and go in harm’s way. And we have a lengthy history of going in harm’s way — in Iraq, Afghanistan. We’ve built a culture of warrior excellence, warfighting, interoperability in the joint force. The PRC has not yet had to deal with that. They haven’t had to deal with that in decades.”

These claims are remarkably stupid. For one, the Chinese’ last combat was not captured on “oil and canvas.” 

The United States fought—and lost—a war with China in living memory! That combat was captured not in paintings but in photos and videos. Communist China intervened in the Korean War after UN troops pushed to the Yalu River on the border of North Korea and China in 1950. 

Communist troops from the People’s Liberation Army pushed American and United Nations forces south in a series of bloody engagements in that fall. The Battle of the Chosin Resevoir in November 1950 is well-known to Marines (save for General Smith) for the brutality of the cold conditions. Chinese forces pushed the Marines back to the 38^th parallel but we inflicted heavy losses in the process. 

American troops displayed great bravery but, it should be noted, that conflict was a disaster for the Americans. America and the United Nations forces were not able to hold out against the poorly-equipped but well-disciplined Chinese army. Despite having nearly conquered the whole of the Korean peninsula in the late summer of 1950, the Chinese were able to push American forces back.

It is due to that counter offensive that North Korea exists today. 

Moreover, China fought in another major war in the 20^th century—World War II! Chinese forces fought against the Japanese on and off from 1931 to 1945—and the period from 1937 onward saw some of the worst casualties of the whole global conflict. The Chinese suffered some 3-4 million soldiers and 15-20 million civilians killed, to say nothing of those wounded. 

The Chinese weren’t able to defeat the Japanese on their own, of course, but they did fight and on an enormous scale. 

It is shocking that a 4-star American General is so ignorant of recent history—including the history of his own branch—that he would say something as stupid as the last Chinese combat being captured on “oil and canvas.” Either General Smith does not know when photography was invented or he does not know the most basic Wikipedia-tier facts about American military involvements in the Far East. My guess is that General Smith is ignorant on both counts. 

That hunch is based on personal experience with General Smith. Smith was the commander of the 1st Marine Division when I arrived there, fresh from the schoolhouse, in January of 2018. My first week in the fleet, General Smith ordered every lieutenant in the division to attend an all-hands meeting on officer conduct. At that conference, in front of several hundred junior officers, Smith claimed, among other things, that the United States would be at war with North Korea within one year. 

He advised us to read the book This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History by TR Fehrenbach in order to prepare; though it would seem he himself never read the book seeing as he does not know the Chinese communists fought in that conflict!

I found Smith’s claim outlandish and bloviating even then. I made a note to check in January of 2019 to see if the war had broken out (it did not). 

Smith has a pattern of being spectacularly wrong and blustering in public. He isn’t alone in  that, of course. The higher echelons of the American military-industrial complex is filled with ass-kissing fools who couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag if you gave them a compass and a map. 

For instance, the United States spent two decades bleeding American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq only to ignominiously leave both countries in shambles. These, by the way, are the very wars that General Smith praised for honing the “warrior culture” of the American military.

What absolute bullshit. Most of the Global War on Terror veterans that I know are deeply cynical about their experience. Men who fought hard for territory in Iraq and Afghanistan later watched as ISIS and the Taliban swept through their former Areas of Operation with nary any resistance. 

The lives of their friends and comrades were destroyed for nothing. 

Meanwhile, the toxic spread of leftist ideology has poisoned the morale of the post-GWOT military, including the Marine Corps. General Mark Milley condemned “white rage” in remarks before Congress. The COVID vaccine mandate drove out thousands of loyal and patriotic conservative soldiers and Marines who did not want to be subjected to an experimental medical procedure. The Biden administration’s crackdown on “white supremacy” was merely cover for targeting any right wing servicemember altogether. 

Our military does not have a warrior culture. We don’t win wars! Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were all losses or, at best, draws. Considering America’s vast economic and political might and our supposed status as “leader of the free world,” our recent military track record is a disaster. 

The American Navy, in particular, is a mess. Our warships are literally rusting in their berths and, as the Fat Leonard scandal revealed, the upper command is profoundly corrupt. Our once-proud military is filled with scavengers and parasites who seek personal aggrandizement over the needs of national defense—80% of former generals go to work for defense contractors. 

A sober and thoughtful commander would seek to fix those problems instead of saber-rattle in the stupidest way possible. For one, General Smith mentioned iPhone 14s filming America’s most recent combat. And who, exactly, built those iPhones, General?

The Chinese, of course! A great power conflict between China and America would pit us against our leading trade partner and source of manufactured goods and rare earth materials!  China, for instance, has 10 times the steelmaking capacity of the United States. The Chinese possess nearly complete global dominance in the processing of rare earth minerals—key ingredients in high tech components. 

General Smith, if he were paying attention, would also ask how exactly China and America are supposed to fight a conventional war in an age of nuclear weapons. How will the Marine Corps be able to win a decisive engagement against a foreign power that could simply annihilate an entire division with a handful of atomic warheads?

No one has ever satisfactorily answered this question. No two nuclear powers have fought a direct engagement since 1945. The Marine Corps can redesign the force all it wants but the deepest and most important question is this: how can we fight, much less win, a war against another nuclear power?

Our conventional military has fared poorly against insurgent forces—Iraq and Afghanistan attest to that—and war with a nuclear power is almost certainly impossible. Such a conflict would cease to be “war” and simply become “slaughter.” 

Intelligent military leaders would seek answers to these questions. We don’t have those leaders, though. At least not yet. President Trump can change this. He could start by relieving Smith of command and promote an officer with a functioning brain to stand in his stead. 

We need serious reform in the Department of Defense. That change should start at the top. I for one, would like to see my former branch become a serious warfighting organization. The Marine Corps is not a circus and the Commandant should not be a clown.