Facts proved that age and experience still counted for something.
After the NEO Navy brought out the elderly lineup of Garp plus Zephyr, they were simply unstoppable.
On top of that, most of the hawkish Marine officers had already followed Sakazuki out on campaign, while most of those left behind leaned toward the dovish side to begin with. As a result, there was no way to stop what was happening.
From G1 to G5, they moved on, and their ranks kept growing along the way.
Naturally, this situation could not be hidden from the World Government's intelligence agencies. After flying into a furious rage, the Five Elders also realized the severity of the matter.
Although they had gone out of their way to belittle the Marines' role in front of Akainu, making the Marines sound like insignificant dust within the World Government, that had actually only been a PUA tactic.
Only by first doing everything possible to diminish the other party's value could they achieve more perfect control.
However, as the strongest instrument of violence under the World Government, the importance of the Marines was beyond question. They were the cornerstone that upheld the World Government's rule over the seas. The World Government absolutely could not lose the Marines!
Thus, in order to keep Zephyr and Garp from causing even greater unrest and inflicting greater losses on the World Government and the Marines, they decisively sent out the commander-in-chief of CP0, known as the "strongest shield of the Celestial Dragons," along with several deputy commanders-in-chief, to stop them together.
However, ahem, how should one put it? The strongest shield of the Celestial Dragons had indeed stepped into the realm of an admiral, but an admiral and admiral-level were two completely different concepts.
The reason a Marine admiral was an admiral