Copyright kyivpost
WASHINGTON DC – US Vice President J.D. Vance, the first Marine to hold the nation’s second-highest office, used the Corps’ 250th birthday celebration on Saturday to deliver a potent political message, tethering the muscular image of American military might to a new, disciplined strategy for when and how to fight. Speaking to an audience of Marines and sailors after an amphibious assault demonstration on Red Beach, Vance shifted fluidly between battlefield bravado and White House doctrine. His key rhetorical maneuver was connecting the Marines’ readiness to the Trump administration’s foreign policy goals. “When you hear this phrase, peace through strength,” Vance said, “we are fighting for peace every single day in the White House, every single day in the Oval Office. We achieve peace, because you, the Marine Corps, are our strength.” The comments, delivered at a pivotal moment in global affairs, aim to define the administration’s approach to conflict: a promise of deterrence underpinned by the Corps’ enduring readiness. Scathing critique of “endless wars” Perhaps the most pointed part of the Vance’s address was his critique of the past four decades of American military engagement, which he said was a bipartisan failure. Vance, who enlisted in the Marines in 2003, did not mince words when discussing the wars of his own generation. He accused previous political leaders of failing the troops by sending them to war “without giving you clear guidance about what you needed to do and clear guidelines for when you would come home.” He then articulated what he called a “sacred promise” from the administration, signaling a sharp turn from previous doctrines: “We will give you the knowledge and the tools you need to win, and we will make it clear that your job is to kick the enemy’s ass and come back home safely.” This pledge – clear mission, clear victory, clear exit – is a defining marker for the Vance-era approach to military intervention, calculated to resonate strongly with a force that spent decades rotating through conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most important “war-fighting technology” Vance also waded into the debate over the future of the military, a conversation often dominated by technological buzzwords like artificial intelligence, drones, and advanced aircraft. While acknowledging the profound changes in the modern battlefield, he offered a deeply traditional counterpoint, effectively framing the individual Marine as the ultimate cutting-edge system. “I happen to believe that the most important war-fighting technology is not a new airplane. The most important war-fighting technology is not artificial intelligence or anything on a computer,” Vance declared. “The most important war-fighting technology is a well-trained and well-armed United States Marine,” he concluded. His message on this 250th anniversary was clear: The Corps’ strength is the nation’s peace, but that strength must be wielded with a newly defined, decisive purpose.
