Posobiec shared the history of the founding of the Marines, which saw as its first commandant Samuel Nichols. After the Marines was commissioned, Nichols went into a local tavern and announced, "We're looking for a few good men to serve in the Marine Corps of the United States of America." Over 300 men signed up by spring.
These men joined the fight to create the nation. "Those are the men that founded this country. The United States was not founded through debate society. The United States was not founded by people arguing in the marketplace of free ideas. No. The United States of America was founded by men of action. And when George Washington was looking for men of action, he turned to the United States Marine Corps."
Posobiec spoke with Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon advisor and veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Caldwell spoke to the intensity of the conflict in Vietnam for Marines and about the potential for sending Marines out into global conflicts.
Caldwell said that when he was in basic training, he "was always told that we walk in the shadow of giants. The Vietnam Marines were definitely those giants. For us junior Marines, we always looked up to them. And you know, we were well-educated on our history in Vietnam, and you cannot overstate the intensity of the marine experience in Vietnam.
"So first and foremost, it's important to know that most of the Marines of Vietnam served in I Corps, which is the military unit that controlled all the US military assets in the northern part of South Vietnam. So they were right on the border with North Vietnam, the DMZ, and then they also controlled areas all the way out to the border with Laos. So that's where you had places like Khe Sanh, where there was a famous battle where the Marines really distinguished themselves, basically held out in a siege for several months and then out more towards the sea," Caldwell said.
The two spoke about what the Marines are now called on to do. "Obviously, the United States Marine Corps is willing to go wherever Uncle Sam sends them," Posobiec said. "But isn't this also on the flip side why we need to be very, very careful and honor their service and willingness to do that if we are to then call them into, say, Iran or Venezuela or one of these places?"
"Absolutely, you know, just because you have a highly trained, well-equipped, lethal United States Marine Corps, does not mean that you should send it around the world to fight in every conflict or solve every problem," Caldwell said.
"Military force should always be the last resort, and too often, especially in the post-Cold War era, our policymakers have deployed not just Marines, but soldiers, sailors, airmen, to conflicts that are not our national interest, and the Marines and all other service members distinguish themselves well in those conflicts.
"But let's just quickly talk about what's going on today at the White House. At the White House today, there is a former leader of al Qaeda meeting with President Trump. Al-Sharaa, also known as Jelani, is now the president of Syria.
"I think, to be clear, it's very good that President Trump is engaging with this guy. He clearly wants to do business with us. We, instead of starting another civil war in Syria, we should engage him. And I applaud the Trump administration for doing that.
"But let's think of the symbolism of that for a second. This guy fought United States Marines in Iraq. He was a leader of al Qaeda, and he essentially joined al Qaeda because of the Iraq War and because of our overreach in the region. And so we've invested all this blood and treasure in these wars, and the end result is our enemies winning, and it's because in most cases we didn't need to fight those wars.
"We did need to deploy the Marines. So I think that's an important lesson that we should absorb again. We need a well-trained Marine Corps, well well-trained Navy, Air Force, Army, but we should absolutely use them as a last resort. And just them existing isn't a reason that we should send them around the world to serve as the world's policeman."
