Marines to redeploy some troops in Anbar elsewhere in Iraq

North County Times:

The Marine Corps said Friday that it expects to shrink the size of its forces in the Anbar province, where 25,000 North County-based Marines and sailors have been stationed the last several years.

The reduction applies only to forces in Anbar and not to the number of Marines in Iraq as a whole, at least for now, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

"Until we're told otherwise, the Marine Corps will maintain its current deployed numbers," Maj. Jay Delarosa at the service's Pentagon headquarters said in response to questions from the North County Times.

Insurgent attacks in Anbar have declined in recent months because of increased tribal cooperation with U.S. forces. So the Marine Corps has been shifting its focus to other areas, such as the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

Until the recent successes in Anbar, which is west of Baghdad, the province was the most lethal region in Iraq. At least 1,257 U.S. troops have died there, including a majority of the 336 locally based troops who have been killed in the war.

Earlier this year, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, head of the I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton and commander of Marine forces throughout the Middle East, said Marines would chase insurgents who have fled Anbar.

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The Pentagon announced that an estimated 11,000 Camp Pendleton Marines and sailors from the I Marine Expeditionary Force's Headquarters Group and Regimental Combat Teams 1 and 5 will be heading to Iraq late this year and early next year.

When the units ship out, they'll be taking the Marine Corps' newest and most controversial aircraft with them, the tilt-rotor Osprey helicopter. They'll also be getting more v-hulled, mine-resistant vehicles.

The on-ground commander of those troops will be Brig. Gen. John Kelly, who currently serves as legislative assistant to the commandant of the Marine Corps and has been nominated for promotion to major general.

Lt. Col. Christopher Hughes, spokesman for the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said Kelly's legislative work in recent months should serve him well as he undertakes his new assignment.

"He has a great relationship with Congress so that open line of communication should be very helpful," Hughes said Friday.

...

This sounds like a recognition of where the center of gravity of the war effort has moved. Indeed, the enemy's only hope for survival in Iraq is a Congressional ordered retreat.

The story really highlights the success of the Marine units in Anbar. They should be able to replicate their accomplishments elsewhere in Iraq as we deny the enemy access to the population and get the help of the population in destroying the enemy infrastructure in Iraq.

It looks like the Osprey will finally get a live fire drill. I have often thought it is needed most in Afghanistan because of the terrain and the disposition of forces.