US Marines propose moving force from Iraq to Afghanistan
The US Marines are suggesting that they take over operations in Afghanistan, while the US Army and Air Force handle Iraq.
The move would entail removing all 25,000 marines from the 160,000-strong US force currently in Iraq, and transferring them to Afghanistan, where there are currently no marines among the 26,000 US troops…
…Officials said the move could improve both the field operations of the army. With all its troops confined to Iraq, the army might have more flexibility in planning its future troop rotations.
But the shift would mean changes as well for the air force. The army relies on the air force in both countries for combat air support, while the marines have their own air operations. That could improve coordination in Afghanistan operations, officials told the Times.
I personally don’t have a huge heart-ache with this plan, but it won’t be easy. Essentially, as marines are pulling out of regions in Iraq, soldiers are doing the same in Afghanistan. It would take months or possibly a year to accomplish the switch. In the meantime, each branch of service would be taking greater control of new regions they had previously not occupied.
I have to wonder, however, what benefit the Marine Corps sees in this move. Are they trying to assert themselves as a branch? Are they tired of having their units fall under an overall Army command in Iraq? Or do they see the war in Iraq eventually coming to a close, and they want to set themselves up as the primary branch in the only other “hot” war we’re involved in?
I suspect this move is more about the Marines attempting to assert themselves, than any tactical or strategic imperative.
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Those Marines that were in Anbar province are being withdrawn because of the outstanding progress made since the surge began, so basically they’re asking to be deployed to somewhere else where they might be needed.
Perhaps, but I still think there’s some service branch ego going on. Actually, all branches of the service go out of the way to prove their worth. Right now, the Air Force is struggling in that regard, because they have no enemy fighters to shoot down in a counter-terrorism war. The same thing is happening within the Army. Right now, there’s a large re-alignment of forces from the standard “cold war” force structure (armor, artillery, air defense) to something better suited to dealing with our two current wars.