Compass Points - Stop Fooling
Marines should be honest and blunt.
Compass Points - Stop Fooling
Marines should be honest and blunt.
May 2, 2025
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Who are we trying to fool? The enemy or ourselves?
The use of surprise and deception are crucial in war. There are several quotes about the importance of surprise and deception attributed to Sun Tzu.
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A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective.
-- Sun Tzu
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The Marine Corps' own foundational doctrine publication, MCDP-1 Warfighting, talks of the importance of surprise.
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By surprise we mean a state of disorientation resulting from an unexpected event that degrades the enemy’s ability to resist. We achieve surprise by striking the enemy at a time or place or in a manner for which the enemy is unprepared. It is not essential that we take the enemy unaware, but only that awareness came too late to react effectively. The desire for surprise is “more or less basic to all operations, for without it superiority at the decisive point is hardly conceivable.” 19 While a necessary precondition of superiority, surprise is also a genuine source of combat power in its own right because of its psychological effect. Surprise can decisively affect the outcome of combat far beyond the physical means at hand.
-- MCDP-1 Warfighting p.2-21
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When a military unit uses surprise and deception, they should be used against the enemy, not against themselves. In his first trip to the Philippines, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the US would be sending the Marine Corps' NMESIS missile launcher to participate in exercise Balikatan 2025. USNI News reported on SecDef's visit.
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The American and Philippine defense secretaries announced the deployment of the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, a Naval Strike Missile-equipped unmanned ground vehicle that can hit targets up to 100 nautical miles away, during April’s Balikatan exercise.
-- USNI News
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The remarks by the US Secretary of Defense about the Marine NMESIS missile launcher at exercise Balikatan 2025 in the Philippines were repeated in a recent WSJ editorial.
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Pacific forces. U.S. Marines are exercising in the Philippines with antiship missiles, and that’s crucial if the U.S. is serious about deterring a conflict west of the international dateline.
-- WSJ Editorial Board
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Unfortunately, despite all the good words from the SecDef and from the WSJ, anyone who believes the Marines have an operational missile capability on Philippine islands has been the victim of vague and careless reporting.
The US Marines at Balikatan in the Philippines fired no missiles from their lone NMESIS launcher. The lone NMESIS launcher was set up on the beach so reporters could take pictures of it. That is all. The Marine NMESIS launcher did not launch any missiles and was not even equipped with missiles. There is no operational US Marine missile capability in the Philippines.
Deception and surprise are important in war. Deception and surprise, however, should be used against the enemy, not against ourselves. China is not fooled by a single NMESIS launcher, without missiles, sitting on a beach on a Philippine island. The Marine Corps has talked for years about having a string of island missile units off the coast of China. China is not fooled. China surveys every island, inlet, and shoal off its coast and it knows there are no operational US Marine missile units off its shore.
Who are we trying to fool? The enemy or ourselves?
No military service should be trying to fool the US Congress or the Department of Defense about actual, active warfighting capabilities. Where is the Marine Corps leader who will testify bluntly and honestly to Congress that the Marine Corps embarked on an experiment nearly 6 years ago and the years have now revealed the experiment to be largely a failure.
The Nation always expects blunt and honest reports from Marines in every situation. The blunt truth is the Marine Corps needs help from Congress to restore the focus of the Marine Corps to worldwide crisis response. If the Marine Corps wants good words from SecDef and the Wall Street Journal editorial board, — or anyone else — the Marine Corps should focus less on their mostly theoretical regional missile capability, and focus more on the power and capability of the restored and enhanced worldwide 9-1-1 force, the forward deployed Marine MAGTF.
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USNI News - 03/28/2025
SECDEF Hegseth Announces Marine Anti-Ship Missile Deployment to Balikatan, Defense Industrial Base Cooperation with Manila in Philippines Visit
By Aaron-Matthew Lariosa
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Wall Street Journal - 04/30/2025
Finally, A GOP Boost For Defense
Republicans propose $150 billion to arrest U.S. military decline.
By WSJ Editorial Board
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Lies by commission or omission have been routine over the past five years. Regardless of what MCCRES score might be assigned, the integrity score is zero. Pick the topic — it does not matter.
https://open.substack.com/pub/cpldanusmcret764175/p/secretary-phelan?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=ohc7t
Rebuild the MAGTF and quit playing, enough money has already been wasted on the SIF boondoggle