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| USMC General James F Amos (Wiki Info) |
By Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe
The Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General James F. Amos, gives his thoughts in a wide ranging interview.
As the process of rebalancing its forces to the Asia-Pacific begins to gain further traction, the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) sees itself returning to a familiar region of the world. In this context, the Commandant of the USMC,General James F. Amos, spoke to Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe about the Corps’ transformation and modernization, the impact of successive deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the status of Marine Corps activities in Africa and South America, the strategic realignment to the Asia-Pacific, the likely future battlefield, and defense budget cuts.
How has the USMC transformed and modernized since 9/11?
General Amos: As America's expeditionary crisis response force, the United States Marine Corps, has always responded to our Nation's call to arms. No two fights are the same, so we've historically maintained a service culture of mental flexibility, adaptability and operational agility. For example, shortly after 9/11, the Marine Corps conducted the longest amphibious-launched raid in history by deploying Task Force 58 deep into Afghanistan to strike Al Qaeda and topple the Taliban.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, we assaulted from Kuwait to Baghdad as part of a coalition force and removed Saddam Hussein from power. We then transitioned to counterinsurgency operations both in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we were heavily invested in Iraq and Afghanistan, we also supported counterterrorism in the southern Philippines, provided disaster relief in the Indian Ocean basin after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, conducted humanitarian relief operations in Pakistan and Haiti, evacuated U.S. citizens from Lebanon, assisted our Japanese allies during the 2011 earthquake and nuclear crisis, took down the pirated MV Magellan Star, and rescued a downed U.S. Air Force pilot in Libya – just to name a few.
Read the full 4 page story at The Diplomat