The problem with retaining only 5 (or possibly 7) active Marine Corps cannon artillery batteries

Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, said: “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later date.”Rumsfeld was widely criticized for this statement, made during a question-and-answer session in 2003 with U.S. Army troops in Kuwait who were preparing to deploy into Iraq.He had been asked by an Army specialist why his friends had to scavenge through local landfills looking for scrap metal to armor their Humvees.Like their Army counterparts, Marines also were scrambling to fabricate and attach metal plating to the sides of their vehicles before driving them into the heavily mined roads of Iraq.Despite the derision and condemnation Rumsfeld received for his poor choice of words, he was absolutely correct: The Marines went to war with the equipment they had, suffering needless casualties as a result.RELATEDIf nothing else, we…

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