to promote our love of peace by a display of weakness,” wrote Gen.George C. Marshall in 1945. “This course has failed us utterly.”

Nearly 40 years later, former chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David C. Jones, said, “Although most history books glorify our military accomplishments, a closer examination reveals a disconcerting pattern: unpreparedness at the start of a war; initial failures; reorganizing while fighting; cranking up our industrial base; and ultimately prevailing by wearing down the enemy--by being bigger, not smarter.”

Indeed. Fortunately, it seems we have finally figured it out, and today are waging one of our most desperate struggles against evil with one of the finest sets of armed forces our nation has ever fielded. But it's not only because we've figured it out, but also that we're now modeling our conventional forces and our citizen soldiery on our professional elites. It's a formula for building warriors wherein we teach our new recruits not only how to fight, but that they are -- in so many words -- born of a warrior class; and that no matter their job description, they are each and every one combat soldiers first.

My own service, the Marine Corps, discovered this formula a long time ago. As the late Gen. Leonard F. Chapman Jr., former Marine commandant, once said, “The basic secret of the Marine Corps is that every Marine is trained as a rifleman or a platoon leader.”

Sounds simple, but it is a philosophy that is infused into every Marine from day-one in boot camp. Every Marine knows -- whether he is a cook or an administrative clerk -- his first responsibility is as a Marine infantryman.

It's a philosophy drawing on the Marine's warrior culture and his warrior class. The other branches have adopted similar approaches to it, and it is one of the primary reasons why America is winning today, and will ultimately survive and win in the war against the terrorists.

This article first appeared at FamilySecurityMatters.org