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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
I think he also missed the mark on the reason for the alleged aversion to limited war - I believe it is because we have never had colonies or been an empire. Everything the Europeans know about small war they learned putting down rebellions (or trying to) in their colonies.
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We had "colonies" and did put down rebellions in them. We even gave out a bunch of medals for them (see attached).
But the concept of being a colonial power and putting down rebellions warred (pun intended) with our sense of national identity as an anti-colonial nation. So we (meaning "we" in the general society and big armed forces sense, not the smaller unconventional warfare community) conveniently forgot those lessons.
That, by the way, is where some Marines have an edge, because for all the Marine generals obsessed with refighting the island-hopping major amphibious campaigns of WW2, with all the tanks and planes of the MAGTF, there are still a lot of Marines who read the Small Wars Manual and remember Chesty Puller made his name in Nicaragua long before anyone had heard of the "Frozen Chosen".