National Interest vs Marine Corps Perspective: Why the Marine Corps Should Contribute a Permanent Force to the United States Special Operations Command

摘要

To the detriment of national strategic objectives, the United States Marine Corps has successfully avoided contributing a permanent Marine component force to the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) for the last 17 years. The Marine Corps' contentions of 'Marines support Marines' and 'there are no special Marines' have been the basis for the Corps' resistance to full participation in SOCOM. As a combatant command, SOCOM is leading the planning and synchronization for execution of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The commitment of a permanent Marine component force to SOCOM would have a positive impact on national strategic objectives and be beneficial to the Nation, SOCOM, and the Marine Corps.