JohnT:

agree about Mao in terms of revolutionary warfare. Although friends of mine who are chinese history scholars have pointed out some serious flaws to Mao's work; namely that it was not a reflection of reality on the ground in china.

Ref Callwell, if you can suggest you read historian Doug Porch's intro to it in a recently released reprint to it by University of Nevada Press. Porch's intro is quite good because he gets at how Callwell is still relevant today in a world of counterinsurgency theory and thought that is dominated by post world war II revolutionary war theorists.

yeah, just like the great Sam A.

UAM: ref your statement about Marine Corps roots; I think it is truly relative for them in terms of the kind of force that they are shaping for the present and future. At times it has been Quantico, but at other times certainly the SWM and Cent America.

gian