I know lots of Marines firsthand. One just returned from Iraq. He is proud of himself for volunteering to serve his country and very unhappy about the way this administration chose to use him. He did his best to try to serve two conflicting ideas. Follow orders and/or be a good Marine. He was in a good company so that helped tremendously.
My first real exposure to the Marines was when I did part of my Navy basic training with them and they were no more fragile than anyone else. I've since served with many of them and although that was now 10+ years ago I highly doubt Marines of today are radically different from Marines then. Probably a greater percentage of asshole CO's but by how much I don't know. Changes like this tend to be incremental rather than wholesale. In a class conflict Marines should be our friends.
If you want to talk trash about asshole CO's or specific policies within the Corps. that's fine but monolithic negative assessments about Marines are as pointless as similar statements about actors or truck drivers.
That said, any Marine unit is only as good as its commanding officer. There are certainly good and bad Marines but the fault can usually be traced upward, not downward. Most Marines start out just kids looking for self-identy. Good CO = good person. Bad CO = sick person. Overly simple perhaps but much more true in the Corps. than elsewhere in my opinion.
John Thornton
> Carl writes:
>
> > Marines seem to have fragile personalities