Marines turning Anbar over to Iraqis

Washington Post:

The top Marine Corps general said yesterday that the U.S. military will hand over security responsibilities to Iraqi forces next week in Iraq's western province of Anbar, paving the way to reduce the 25,000-strong Marine contingent there and free up more Marines to go to Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, said Anbar no longer requires such a large number of Marines, who would be better employed fighting in Afghanistan, where he said the Taliban insurgency is "growing bolder."

"I do know that 25,000 Marines in a province, again, are probably in excess of the need, especially after Iraqi provincial control assumes responsibilities for security," Conway told a media roundtable at the Pentagon.

Attacks in Anbar have fallen to the lowest level since the war started in March 2003, even as thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have withdrawn from the province this year, said Conway, who recently met with U.S. and Iraqi commanders in Anbar. -- There are now two or three attacks a day, compared with scores daily two years ago, when Anbar was one of the most dangerous provinces in Iraq.

While pointing to security gains in Iraq, Conway voiced concern over increased violence in Afghanistan, where he said insurgent attacks and U.S. troop casualties have increased since 2004.

"The Taliban are growing bolder in their tactics and clearly doing their best to exploit security gaps where they exist," he said. More foreign fighters are also flowing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, and the al-Qaeda terrorist network is shifting its focus to those countries after serious defeats in Iraq, he said.

Conway made a strong pitch to send thousands of additional Marines or other U.S. troops to Afghanistan, voicing agreement with U.S. commanders there who have said for years that they have too small a force and have called for as many as 10,000 more troops. "The economy of force is not necessarily working," Conway said.

He said the additional Marines are needed in part to replace the 3,200 in southern and western Afghanistan whose extended eight-month tour will end in late November. He warned that without reinforcements, a security vacuum will allow the Taliban to retake captured territory and persecute the population.

"We've seen families slaughtered. We've seen policemen rounded up and executed with shots to the back of the head in the soccer stadium, just to make the point. And so that's what we risk if we don't somehow take advantage of those gains and maintain the momentum in that area," Conway said.

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The victory in Iraq would not have been possible if Obama got his way. Gen. Conway is ready for the Marines next mission in Afghanistan where the enemy has moved his forces after being beaten in Iraq.

We do need to add more troops in Afghanistan. We are not losing, as some suggest, in Afghanistan. The enemy is more active right now and that gives us an opportunity we ought to seize. We also need to keep the Pakistanis in the fight. They are beginning to take on the Taliban in the sanctuaries and that makes the enemy have a two front war with fewer places for R & R.