Marines push to take the lead in Afghanistan

[CommunityEditor]

The Marine Corps is pushing to re-deploy its forces from Iraq to Afghanistan to take the lead in combat operations there and essentially leave Iraq to the Army, The New York Times reported in an article for Thursday editions posted on its Web site Wednesday night.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway, raised the issue with Gates last week, the Times reported. Senior military and Pentagon officials said supporters of the proposal, including some in the Army, believe that such a realignment could allow both services to operate more efficiently in the face of strains on the separate forces.

No major Marine units are among the 26,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan while 25,000 Marines are among the 160,000 U.S. troops there, the paper noted.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...nistan_071011/