US Marines deploy in south Afghanistan

[tpsbmam]

Source: AP

Some of the 3,200 U.S. Marines slated for a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan's volatile south have begun arriving at the region's largest base following a call from Canada for more troops there.

About 2,300 troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will be based in Kandahar, the Taliban's former power base. A majority of those Marines arrived in the last several days.

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I believe that the arrival of the Marines simply reinforces what is proving to be a successful strategy. It also demonstrates the commitment of the United States to Afghanistan over the long-term," U.S. Ambassador William Wood said Tuesday.
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About 1,000 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., will also be deployed in the south to train Afghan police and soldiers. They are expected to arrive in April or May, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a U.S. Army spokesman.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080318/ap_on_re_ca/afghanistan;_ylt=AnvVXgcwHLzZWxd5KNIEK1as0NUE

[Buzz Clik]

1. Somebody has been paying attention to Obama.

Though he isn't alone in this, he's been saying all along to put far more emphasis on Afghanistan.

[sofa king]

2. I'm not sure I like the idea of Marines in Afghanistan.

I know they're well trained and disciplined, and do far more with much less than the other armed forces, but those Marine Expeditionary Units are far more valuable as an undeployed strategic force. In the American order of battle, the MEUs are supposed to be floating around somewhere as the first reinforcements or the tough bastards who are going to go in first and wait for the first reinforcements.

When they're a thousand miles away from any navigable water, I start to worry about them, and about the quick-reaction power that America doesn't have to deal with whatever George Bush fucks up next.

At the very least, it must throw off their schedule, with a laborious fourth cycle of "deployment to and from" included somewhere in the schedule of ready, refitting, retraining.