An Open Letter to the ‘Young Turks’

An Open Letter to the ‘Young Turks’ by LtGen Robert B. Neller, Marine Corps Gazette.

I want to take the opportunity to thank the Gazette for putting me in contact with Maj Peter J. Munson. As a result of his letter in the April issue and my response, we had a conversation on the phone. He also sent me his article, “Back to Our Roots,” published in the April 2011 online version of the Gazette, and we discussed that as well. As I mentioned in my commentary printed in the June Gazette in response to “The Attritionist Letters,” I believe it is better to talk and get things out in the open. Consequently, though I have not changed my view as articulated in the “Rebuttal,” I have considered the views of the good major, along with the captain (Capt Joseph Steinfels), who responded to me in the August Gazette, and many of their peers. I have personally listened to the views of these “Young Turks” in long and sometimes heated discussions over the past few years. The following paragraphs are my view of their views…