At first, we thought this was going to be some nonsense by Tom Nichols, but he writes for The Atlantic, not The Hill. So, who did The Hill dig up to write this opinion piece? Harrison Kass, an attorney and national security writer for The National Interest. Kass is apparently worried about the budget and thinks the Marine Corps is the thing to cut.
"The Marine Corps just had its 250th birthday — now let’s abolish it" (@TheHillOpinion) https://t.co/XSH0YkFxZy
— The Hill (@thehill) December 8, 2025
Kass writes:
But as America reflects on its most mythologized service, we should ask a difficult question: do we still need the Marine Corps? As Congress prepares another record-setting defense budget, the U.S. needs to consider whether the Marines’ sustained independence makes strategic or fiscal sense. The simple truth is that the Marines became redundant long ago.
…
The Marine Corps received $53 billion for FY25, about six percent of the U.S. defense budget — which is in turn by far the largest in the world. That is a steep price tag for a service branch with about 170,000 active-duty personnel (“The Few”) operating in redundancy with the other branches. Yet funding is sustained— not because of mission requirements, but because of political popularity and the Marine Corps’ enduring public standing.
Few American institutions command such bipartisan reverence as the Marine Corps. The Marine myth, cultivated so convincingly through advertising (“The Proud”), Hollywood (“Sands of Iwo Jima,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Flags of our Fathers,” “A Few Good Men“), and an epic campaign across the Pacific, has embedded the Marines as a fixture of American ethos—making for a prestige that is disproportionate to current function, and making questions about the Marine Corps’ existence almost unpatriotic.
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"Full Metal Jacket" and "A Few Good Men" are quite the examples to choose for selling the "Marine myth."
The Marines will outlive The Hill....guaranteed.
— Glendale Arizona FOP Lodge 12 (@GlendaleFOP12) December 9, 2025
Hoorah..
🇺🇸
I'd say abolish The Hill but they are slowly abolishing themselves with their really bad takes.
— Capeman (@wheresyourcape) December 8, 2025
The article highlights how the Marines mission overlaps with other branches but completely misses the point of the Marines. We do the job of all other branches as a single force. In the air, on land, and sea. And we do it better as Americas true 911 force.
— Dick (@wewantdick) December 8, 2025
Ignorant piece.
The United States doesn't have a Marine Corps because it needs one.
— Big Jarhead (@big_jarhead) December 9, 2025
It has a Marine Corps because the American people want one.
This is a silly piece. Every once in a while some numb-skull thinks their making a logical argument that eliminating the Marine Corps would make budgetary sense. It would be far more expensive to put soldiers, airmen and sailors in the Marine's roles.
— Andrew Nash (@andybnash) December 8, 2025
Good thing you didn’t look up Fallujah, Ramadi or Sadr City in the Iraq war.
— Tjord Fergesen 🇺🇸 (@TjordFergesen) December 9, 2025
Those Marines went door to door in some of the most intense urban warfare ever and then asked for more.
I hope Marines find this post. @USMarineCorps
— Ben Clede (@BenClede) December 9, 2025
Isn’t your reputation bad enough already?
— Chris McKeever 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@TheRealMcKeever) December 9, 2025
Army officer here. Yes, we need the USMC, and their loss would not only leave an operational gap, it would also be a morale and cultural loss.
— Fritz Whitlow (@hiimfritz) December 9, 2025
There's nowhere else we could cut spending first.
I don’t know this writer but I know a ton of Marines and I’m telling you not only do they need to keep the Marines, I would argue that the Army infantry would be better if it was organized like the Marines.
— Dalton Allen (@Aviation_Tex) December 9, 2025
Way to support the troops, ingrates.
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) December 9, 2025
This isn't how we would have chosen to commemorate the Marine Corps' 250th birthday, but we guess rage bait gets clicks.
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