http://twitchy.com/brettt/2025/12/09/the-hill-its-time-to-abolish-the-marine-corps-n2422654
At first, we thought this was going to be some nonsense by Tom Nichols, but he writes for The Atlantic, not The Hill. So, who did The Hill dig up to write this opinion piece? Harrison Kass, an attorney and national security writer for The National Interest. Kass is apparently worried about the budget and thinks the Marine Corps is the thing to cut.
The Hill (@thehill) ~ "The Marine Corps just had its 250th birthday — now let’s abolish it" (@TheHillOpinion)
http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5615654-the-marine-corps-just-had-its-250th-birthday-now-lets-abolish-it/?utm_social_handle_id=1917731&;utm_social_post_id=618132993
Kass writes:
But as America reflects on its most mythologized service, we should ask a difficult question: do we still need the Marine Corps? As Congress prepares another record-setting defense budget, the U.S. needs to consider whether the Marines’ sustained independence makes strategic or fiscal sense. The simple truth is that the Marines became redundant long ago. ...
The Marine Corps received $53 billion for FY25, about six percent of the U.S. defense budget — which is in turn by far the largest in the world. That is a steep price tag for a service branch with about 170,000 active-duty personnel (“The Few”) operating in redundancy with the other branches. Yet funding is sustained — not because of mission requirements, but because of political popularity and the Marine Corps’ enduring public standing.
Few American institutions command such bipartisan reverence as the Marine Corps. The Marine myth, cultivated so convincingly through advertising (“The Proud”), Hollywood (“Sands of Iwo Jima,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Flags of our Fathers,” “A Few Good Men“), and an epic campaign across the Pacific, has embedded the Marines as a fixture of American ethos—making for a prestige that is disproportionate to current function, and making questions about the Marine Corps’ existence almost unpatriotic.
Glendale Arizona FOP Lodge 12 (@GlendaleFOP12) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} The Marines will outlive The Hill ... guaranteed. Hoorah.
Capeman (@wheresyourcape) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} I'd say abolish The Hill, but they are slowly abolishing themselves with their really bad takes.
Dick (@wewantdick) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} The article highlights how the Marines mission overlaps with other branches, but completely misses the point of the Marines. We do the job of all other branches as a single force. In the air, on land, and sea. And, we do it better as America's true 911 force. Ignorant piece.
Big Jarhead (@big_jarhead) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} The United States doesn't have a Marine Corps because it needs one. It has a Marine Corps because the American people want one.
Tjord Fergesen (@TjordFergesen) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} Good thing you didn’t look up Fallujah, Ramadi or Sadr City in the Iraq war. Those Marines went door to door in some of the most intense urban warfare ever and then asked for more. I hope Marines find this post.
Ben Clede (@BenClede) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion}
"Medically discharged," eh? For being mentally deficient, more than likely, right?
Chris McKeever (@TheRealMcKeever) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} Isn’t your reputation bad enough already?
Mental deficients like to keep digging ...
Fritz Whitlow (@hiimfritz) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} Army officer here. Yes, we need the USMC, and their loss would not only leave an operational gap, it would also be a morale and cultural loss.
Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) ~ {Replying to @thehill and @TheHillOpinion} Way to support the troops, ingrates.
This isn't how we would have chosen to commemorate the Marine Corps' 250th birthday, but we guess rage bait gets clicks.
| 
