If you want to REALLY dumb it down, soldiers are land based infantry, and marines are naval infantry. Historically this is where the distinction comes from.

I personally don't care what they're called. If anything I call those in the service what they are (as in "I know a guy who was a pilot in the Marines" or "I know a guy who was an Armorer in the Army") or I refer to them by branch then rank. If speaking about them generally, I'll probably end up calling Army guys soldiers and Marines will be referred to as Marines, but that's inconsequential. From that natural response and for the sake of arguing for or against Excalibur's point, I'm asking if there is some solid distinction to be made other than what I consider blowhard and silly branch rivalry or semantics, for my own personal knowledge or for the sake of agreeing or disagreeing with Excalibur's argument. That's just the logical way of figuring out where to stand as opposed to agreeing with the status quo just because "it is what it is".

And this is reasonably articulated evidence for the argument in favor of the separation of terms. So given this is true and perhaps elaborated upon, I'd say yeah, you shouldn't call Marines soldiers.

Either way it's nitpicking and a dumb thing to argue about.

That doesn't alter the fact that there is a difference.

Marines want to be called Marines and those who are in the Army are called soldiers. That's how everyone wants it. So that's how it is. Sometimes things have to be accepted at face value and not over thought. Branch rivalry is just boys being boys.

Not true, while infantry is the back-bone of the Army and the Marines about 80-90% of both the Army and Marines are non-combat support.

True if you were solely speaking of the Infantry branch.

As I recall this is strictly a USMC thing, Royal Marines over here don't seem to mind being called soldiers.

im in the i dont give a crap category, some things aren't worth getting wound up over.

We aren't getting wound up, it's a matter of is and is nots. A wheel isn't a tire, a truck isn't a car, a bullet isn't a cartridge, a clip isn't a magazine, and so on. The word "Soldier", like the term "Special Forces", isn't an umbrella term in the US military.

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It's also kind of dorky getting all wound up about it as well in my honest opinion.