Tomorrow, November 10, is the 232nd birthday of the US Marine Corps. The Marines can be a mystery to those of us who weren’t raised in the military culture.  We know from our history books that they are an elite group, something different from other soldiers. But what really makes them different?  In celebration of the Marines, HUMAN EVENTS asked a few Marines to describe the difference in their own words.  

In celebration of the Marines, HUMAN EVENTS asked a few Marines to describe the difference in their own words.     

I felt proud just speaking with Colonel H.C. “Barney” Barnum, Jr., a retired Marine, now Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  Col. Barnum received the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in combat in Vietnam.  He sounded just as I suspected an older Marine would -- direct, convinced and matter of fact.

“Once a Marine always a Marine,” he said. “You earn the title…you join the Army you join the Air Force, you join the Navy -- but you earn the title of a United States Marine.”

 Read the Rest at Human Events....

 by Sig Christenson
Military Reporters & Editors

WASHINGTON - Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led U.S. ground troops in the first critical year of Iraq's occupation, accused politicians of putting their own personal ambitions ahead of the needs of their troops, and predicted that the "nightmare" of a war without end looms unless leaders here make a dramatic U-turn.

"A Japanese proverb says, 'Action without vision is a nightmare. There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez, 56, of San Antonio, said Friday at the 6th annual Military Reporters & Editors conference.

"Since 2003, the politics of war have been characterized by partisanship as the Republican and Democratic parties struggled for power in Washington. Efforts to date have been corrupted by partisan politics that have prevented us from devising effective, executable, supportable solutions."

CNBC and MSNBC are refusing to air the Freedoms Watch ads that we ran in a post last week. The ads feature testimonials by troops and families of troops who have fought in Iraq and support the mission. They have run on Fox and CNN, but MSNBC and CNBC won’t run them. They’re claiming to have a policy of not airing ads centered on controversial public policy subjects, but according to a letter that Freedoms Watch released today, that explanation doesn’t fly.

Read More  

The high-profile attacks — generally large bombs hitting markets, mosques or other "soft" targets that produce mass casualties — have dropped to about 70 in July from a high during the past year of about 130 in March, according to the Multi-National Force — Iraq.

Read More  

Ever since Connecticut Democrats refused to back him for a fourth term in Congress, Joe Lieberman has been burnishing his independent credentials in the narrowly divided Senate while becoming increasingly critical of the Democratic Party on the war in Iraq.

 Read More

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military said Tuesday that a Marine was killed in fighting west of the capital, bringing the American death toll for July to at least 73 - still the lowest in eight months. An Apache helicopter also went down Tuesday after coming under fire in a predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, but both crew members were safely evacuated, the military said.

Read More 

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

 Read More 

Military officials said 25 heavily armed parachutists who landed in a cornfield on the grounds of a Colorado prison last week were on a training mission but landed about 3 miles off target.

Read More