The October 22, 2012 presidential debate, when Mitt Romney warned about there being too few Navy ships to fulfill our military missions – and promptly got a smart-ass, dismissive and sarcastic Choom Gang response from Barack Obama…

How does smartass President Dick square his “I got this” routine with the news that the Marine Corps is now going to put Marines and helicopters on foreign ships because we don’t have enough?

Yes, you read that right. The United States Marine Corps is now going to play like NASA and hitch rides with our “allies.” Lord knows who those will turn out to be before President Dick is through, right?

The initiative is a stopgap way to deploy Marines aboard ships overseas until more American vessels are available, said Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa.

The Marines will be able to respond quickly to evacuate embassies or protect U.S. property and citizens, a need highlighted by the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.

“There’s no substitute for U.S. amphibious” vessels, Cooling said. “We’re looking at other options” in the meantime, he added.

The Marines have been working with Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and other close allies to determine the suitability of the foreign ships for U.S. personnel and aircraft.

Remember the joke about the New Italian Navy? Glass-bottom boats so they can see the Old Italian Navy.

Now there’s a retort – at least there IS an Italian Navy. Where’s your navy, Yankee Marine? Swab the deck some more and earn your passage.

And according to the Washington Free Beacon, that’s exactly what this is going to be.

This is not the first attempt by the Marine Corps to deal with the shortfall in amphibious vessels in an unconventional way. Earlier this year, for example, it was reported that the Marine Corps had already begun running limited operations off of Navy supply ships that are crewed by civilians.

Among the interesting elements of this morning’s report is the way in which the Marines are making no effort to dress up the effort to use foreign ships as some sort of partnership effort that benefits the United States. Instead, Cooling paints a concerning picture of a Marine Corps desperate to fulfill operational requirements but lacking support from the Navy to do so.

There is an inside-baseball element of recent Department of Defense history to this. Marine-friendly critics of the Navy have long been frustrated with what they perceive as the Navy’s reluctance to fully support the Marine Corps’ amphibious mission, preferring to purchase and operate ships that serve other purposes instead.

But there is a larger strategic question here. Why does the Navy have to choose between supporting the Marine Corps and its other major requirements? We live in a world with too many serious crises to count, many of which could require the swift intervention of the sort of light, flexible teams in which the Marine Corps specializes. Supporting such a mission is obviously not the Navy’s only priority, but sufficient funding should be available—and better streamlining of the DOD’s absurd waste in other areas should be demanded—so that the Navy isn’t forced to choose between important operational demands.

It’s been three years since those douchebaggy, passive-aggressive and vainglorious answers to foreign policy questions produced a second term for Obama, as Romney was too slow on his feet to respond with a proper comeback to any of them.

And now, we are a second-rate navy with second-rate resources and second-rate capabilities – because President Dick, who’s so much smarter than anybody else that it’s a chore for him to actually be held to account for anything he does, has wasted seven years as president in trying to make sure the shemales in the military can get sex-change operations and don’t face discrimination from the troops, and buying biofuels for jets at $1,000 per gallon. Anything but actually trying to maintain readiness for the next war, which is surely coming given the abject failures of his foreign policy and the provocative weakness of America’s position in Eastern Europe, in the South China Sea, in Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf and a number of other places which could erupt in conflict at any time without our preparation to participate in a constructive fashion.

Vladimir Putin looks at this and breaks into hysterical laughter. He can’t believe his good fortune. And he’ll plan more foreign adventures soon in the knowledge that not only is the United States lacking in leadership to stop his aggressions but we don’t even have the capability to do anything.

The West Coast will be getting buzzed by more Russian bombers soon. Hopefully the pilots won’t be wasted on vodka and crash the planes into Prudhoe Bay.