A Battlefield Tourist

Marines To Trade Anbar For Afghanistan

Aug 27 at 5:05pm by David Tate

Top US Marine General James Conway says he wants to see the US Marine presence in Afghanistan increase as troop needs in Iraq’s Anbar Province are set to start drawing down in early September.

“The requirement right now in Iraq is much more about nation-building than it is fighting. And quite frankly, young Marines join our corps to go fight for their country,” Conway said at a Pentagon briefing.

“It’s our view that if there’s a stiffer fight going on someplace else … then that’s where we need to be.”

Currently 25,000 Marines, commanded by the First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF), operate in the former insurgent hotbed west of Baghdad.

For months there have been reports the Marines have been vying for a more active battlespace with Afghanistan at the top of the list. 

Conway’s remarks come as Iraqi security forces are set to take over security duties for Anbar Province on September 1st.  Anbar, scene of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting around Fallujah and Ramadi, will be the 11th (of 18) province returned to Iraqi government control.

Roughly 4,000 US Marines are currently serving in Afghanistan, most of them in Helmand and Farah Provinces in the south.  There, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and 2nd Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment (2/7) are training Afghan Security forces and providing security for development projects.  Both units have already been extended once, for 30 days, and are scheduled to leave the country in November.  Other than Afghan forces, no units have been designated as replacements.

Conway said he would like to address the strain his Marines have been under since 2001 by limiting his expeditionary forces to 15,000, most of whom would be used in Afghanistan.   Currently 34,000 Marines, or 1/6 of the entire Marine Corps, are deployed.