The Marines: They're killers and attack dogs but they're OUR killers and attack dogs

I love the Marines. And apparently the Marines love me too. But frankly, our guys in the Corps are currently living life in a fairy tale. Which fairy tale? Cinderella. Think about it.

Here's Cinderella. She used to be the treasured offspring of an honorable man. And now she's just a scullery maid and a drudge for her wicked stepmother. And if Cinderella represents the Marines in this fairy tale, then who does the wicked stepmother represent? We all know who -- and if we don't, then we should. Oh, okay. I'll spell it out for you. She represents the Bush-McCain clone's boss -- that wicked fake evil globalized corporate "mother" who tries to pretend that she has our best interests at heart but who in reality has taken over our home and kicked us out in the cold.

So. How did I get on this Marines-as-Cinderella kick? Here's the story. Some very persistent lady who is the mother of two Marines in Iraq kept writing me and writing me about some incident in Afghanistan that two Marine officers are being court-martialed for -- and something she wrote stayed with me. "The Marines are now doing the job of occupation that they were never meant to do." Scullery work! No grand balls at the castle for them. No glass slippers. Their job now is to just go around and clean up behind the messes created by the wicked stepmother. Cinderellas. Our brave and historic Marines have just become Cinderellas.

The Marine mom who e-mailed me the other day passionately pleaded with me to DO something to help the Marines. What does she expect me to do? Produce a glass slipper or something? Find a handsome young prince? Oh, okay. I'll try.

"Once upon a time, America had a fine fighting force called the Marines. They would fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea. Only somehow the strong and honorable fathers of our country -- from George Washington to John Kennedy -- all died out suddenly and the poor Marines were left as orphans, doomed to do the bidding of their wicked stepmother."

As they say in the movie, "Night and day, it's Cinderella...." You all know that song.

"Now this wicked stepmother didn't care a fig about America and all that it used to stand for and she forced the Marines to live in the attic and perform menial chores. And the wicked stepmother degraded Cinderella, er, I mean, the Marines."

The Few? The Proud? Now they are out washing the WSM's dirty laundry.

"But Jane," you might say, "every fairy tale has a happy ending. So where is the happy ending here?"

Where indeed?

PS: "As a humanist, a spiritual person and a peace activist, how can you possibly defend the Marines," someone asked me recently. "They are nothing but killers and attack dogs."

Yep. They ARE killers and attack dogs. That's them. But they are OUR killers and attack dogs. And after all the things that the Marines have done for us, it's the least we can do to rescue our Marines in return -- to take them back from the globalization corporate boa constrictor that is swallowing them all up.

There have been several times in the past when Americans needed killers and attack dogs like the Marines -- to defend our freedom. And there probably will be times in the future when we will need them again. But if we continue to let that wicked stepmother known as globalization shamelessly use and abuse our Marines and force them to run her various extortion racket errands for her all around the world, then when the time comes when we really do need to call on our Marines to help us here on our very shores, THEY WILL NOT BE THERE. Where will they be? Up in the attic, worn out from doing all the globalization mafia's menial chores.

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From a Marine officer in Anbar: I truly appreciate your support and love of your Corps. You are right that your Corps loves you too! LOL. But I cannot agree with the wicked step-mother analogy and I am confident in stating that most Marines would not either. I will offer you that many of the challenges that we face are a result of our media who take small bits of information and splatter them across 24 hours news and headlines without vetting theinformation and putting it the proper context. However, I will also tell you that the Marine Corps has ALWAYS held its officers and Marines to high standards and have never allowed atrocities to be committed without accountability. We do not tolerate the taking of innocent lives and we do everything within our power to prevent such losses. I am not sure of what happened in Afghanistan so I cannot really comment.

Jane, keep up the good fight and keep doing what you aredoing. Our Country was made great by diverse opinions and ideas and wewill stay great as long as we allow those diverse opinions and ideasto flourish. Below is a copy of an e-mail I just sent out to our families and friends:

The past seven months have been very busy ones for your Marines and Sailors. To say I am proud of them and their accomplishments would be an incredible understatement. During this deployment they have driven in excess of 150,000 miles under the constant threat of IEDs, they executed over 12,000 mounted and dismounted combat patrols in the cities, villages, and deserts of our AO, they discovered and removed from enemy hides over 20,000 pieces of ordinance that could have been used to make hundreds of IEDs, and they detained over 200 suspected insurgents....

But your Marines did a lot more than combat operations, and certainly more then what they were originally trained to do. They worked with the local government officials, mayors, and city councils to improve their processes and efficiencies in running a government and showed them that public service constitutes unselfishness and at times self-sacrifice. They spent hours upon hours teaching classes on the Iraqi Rule of Law, the Iraqi Constitution,and other civic functions to local leaders, police officers, and soldiers. They worked tirelessly to assist in getting Provincial support to repair phone lines, pave roads, build water treatment plants, and invest in the area's infrastructure. They attended countless meetings to help develop innovative and efficient answers to a myriad of problems,issues, and complaints. They worked and pleaded with local businessmen to open new stores, expand their businesses, and contribute to the overall economic growth of the area. In short, your Marines and Sailors did everything and anything they needed to in order to help facilitate the success of the Iraqi Government, local leaders, and the economic growth and prosperity of the area.

In the long run, the ability to sustain this type of success will define our final victory.