America's No. 1 Marine said Wednesday his proposal to shift Marine forces from Iraq to Afghanistan has been rejected by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the grounds the administration is worried recent security gains in Iraq are fragile and reversible.
"After discussion with the secretary and with my colleagues on the Joint Staff, there is a determination that right now the timing is not right to provide additional Marine forces to Afghanistan," Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Conway's proposal reveals the thinking of the Marine Corps, which sees itself as offering unique capabilities, different in important ways than the Army, with which it has shared the bulk of the work in Iraq since a joint Army-Marine force invaded and toppled Baghdad in 2003.
Conway hinted at those differences, saying Marines prefer serving under fire in a combat zone to performing nation-building duties in Iraq. He said that in his meeting with Gates on this subject last week, Gates understood Conway's thinking.
Conway also acknowledged his idea of putting Marines primarily in Afghanistan, after they leave Iraq, would have the added benefit of attracting recruits at a time the Marine Corps is trying to expand.
"There's a little bit of a recruiting consideration here in this, I'll admit to you," he said, sketching out a scenario in which about 15,000 Marines would be in Afghanistan and none in Iraq, compared with the present situation in which there are about 25,000 Marines in Iraq and just a few in Afghanistan.
Switching to Afghanistan at lower numbers would give Marines more time between combat tours, while appealing to those potential recruits who embrace the idea of fighting in the country that gave haven to al-Qaida before it carried out its Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Conway said. Left unsaid was the notion that many Marines get less satisfaction from their efforts in Iraq.
Conway, a former commander of Marine forces in Anbar, said the essence of his proposal was to shift Marine combat units to Afghanistan as the need for their services in Anbar declined.
Source: Xinhua/agencies
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