Possibility of Marine Corps being shifted to Afghanistan?

[KG_Cloghaun]

- Looks like the Marine Corps is getting tired of playing policeman. Maybe they can go to Afghanistan & do missions it was designed for- such as destroying terrorist training grounds in Pakistan.


Gates: 'No plan' to pull Marines from Iraq

Defense chief downplays report of possible troop shift to Afghanistan

Reuters




WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday played down a newspaper report that the U.S. Marine Corps was pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and switch to a leading role in Afghanistan.
“I have heard that they were beginning to think about that and that’s all that I’ve heard. I’ve seen no plan, no one’s come to me with any proposals about it,” Gates told reporters in London after meeting his British counterpart, Des Browne.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Marines’ suggestion was raised in a session last week convened by Gates for the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional war-fighting commanders. It comes at a time when Washington’s key ally in Iraq, Britain, is drawing down its presence there.

“My understanding is that it’s—at this point—extremely preliminary thinking on the part of perhaps some staff people in the Marine Corps but I don’t think at this point it has any stature,” Gates said.

Under the proposal, the newspaper said, the U.S. Army would concentrate on Iraq while the Marines would focus on Afghanistan.

Supporters of the idea argue that a realignment could allow the U.S. Army and Marines each to operate more efficiently in sustaining troop levels for two wars that have strained their forces, the New York Times said, citing senior military and Pentagon officials who requested anonymity.

The plan would require a major reshuffling and make the Marines the dominant American force in Afghanistan in a war that has broader public support than the one in Iraq, the Times said.

Realignment
Some officials sympathetic to the army said such a realignment would help ease pressure on the army by allowing it to shift attention from Afghanistan into Iraq, the newspaper reported.

Currently, there are no major Marine units among the 26,000 or so U.S. forces in Afghanistan. In Iraq there are about 25,000 Marines among the more than 160,000 U.S. troops there.

Despite some signs of disquiet in Washington about British plans to withdraw troops from southern Iraq, Gates and Browne put on a show of unity and insisted their plans were closely coordinated.

“The United Kingdom has been and continues to be a stalwart ally and a major contributor at every stage of the Iraq campaign,” Gates said.

Britain said this week it planned to halve its forces in Iraq to about 2,500 troops by next spring. There is an expectation that Britain will then focus more troops on Afghanistan, although the Ministry of Defense has not confirmed such a move.

“The U.S. and the U.K. share exactly the same aspirations for Iraq—for a stable, prosperous and democratic Iraq,” Defense Minister Browne said after meeting Gates.

“But ultimately only the Iraqis themselves can deliver that,” he said. “Our job is to fulfill our strategic objective which is to get the Iraqi security forces to a stage where they can take over responsibility for their own security.”




URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21245930/

[KG_Soldier]

This is good news. The Marines are tired of not having enough good fighters to kill. They believe the Taliban to be better warriors and more deserving of death by Marines than Iraqi thug pogues.

[KG_Panzerschreck]

With a Nephew in advanced Marine combat training in CA. now, about to be deployed to Iraq in Jan., and one joining the Marines in the Spring{Brothers}, i would rest alot easier knowing they were in Afganistan than Iraq.