Marines vs Rest of the US armed forces vs Eurowimps

[tibilicus]

From my personal exposure to military personnel and military culture it seems this sort of argument is rife and, at the end of the day, nonsensical. Speaking from a British perspective the Royal Marines and the paras tend to hold the kind of dubious superiority complex US Marines seem to have. I know a couple of people who have gone for the Para program P-Coy training (with mixed results) and their ego becomes inflated even before they attempt it. Paras and Royal Marines also have a habit of referring to them and "the rest". Sure, I'll respect you for wearing the maroon beret and having the commando daggers but at the end of the day whilst you're physically superior referring to yourself as better than other soldiers is dumb. Sure the signals don't have the same type of job but I'd like to see such "elite" units try and do their job without various types of signals support or the Royal Artillery to get them where they want/ blow everything to bits.

The worst for me has to be the whole regular/ territorial rubbish. territorial units are constantly berated for being "part-timers" or "soft soldiers". Despite the fact if I want to be in any TA unit one has to meet the requirements of any regular soldier. I despair every time I bring up the TA and a wannabe regular comes out with some unfounded statement. Iv'e seen a Lance Corporal from the RAF Regiment give lip back to a major purely because he identified him as being from a TA regiment, that sort of thing's not right. When deployed the TA does the same thing as the regulars, they just have a second life on top of that.

In short I can't talk in certainties about the US military but if it's anything like the British structure then I imagine it has both an interesting and bizarre micro culture. Also for anyone who has served or has knowledge of the US military do the US Marines have to reach a higher standard of fitness than military personnel say Rangers or US paras?