thedrifter
01-10-08, 07:20 AM
Marines may get shorter stay in Iraq
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Planners want to send some units home sooner
CAMP PENDLETON -- Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, the man who will lead more than 11,000 local troops in Iraq for the next 12 months, said Wednesday that his goal is to "work ourselves out of a job."
And if that happens, another Marine officer later said individual units may be sent home long before their scheduled one-year deployment comes to an end.
"As we step back and the training wheels come off for the Iraqi army and security forces, we will stand in the background ready to support them," Kelly said after a ceremony at Camp Pendleton marking the activation of the I Marine Expeditionary Force.
The force, composed of two 5,000-member regimental combat teams and a headquarters group, is on its way to Iraq's Anbar province to relieve the North Carolina-based II Marine Expeditionary Force.
Lt. Col. Chris Hughes said planning also is under way to send as many as possible home before their scheduled one-year deployments end if stability in Anbar continues.
"If it's time to send someone home, we are going to do that," said Hughes, a public affairs officer.
Hughes suggested the earliest that could happen would be at least three months from now. Planners also must take into account bringing home the tons of equipment that have been sent to Iraq to support the troops, he added.
Whether anyone comes home earlier than expected, however, also will depend on the security environment and what the overall U.S commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, thinks is necessary, said Kelly, who is headed to Iraq for the third time.
Petraeus is scheduled to update the president and Congress in March about the overall state of security in Iraq.
Cooperation between U.S. forces and Sunni tribal sheiks in Anbar province, once laden with insurgents and al-Qaida fighters, has apparently led to successes that military planners were saying as recently as two years ago would never happen.
Attacks from roadside bombs, the weapon responsible for the most fatalities and injuries in Iraq, have fallen from around 60 a day to as few as six or seven, Kelly said, adding that most are now found before they can be detonated.
No Camp Pendleton troops have been reported killed in Iraq since Oct. 8. Since the March 2003 invasion, 330 base troops have died in Iraq along with 10 others from Miramar Marine Corps Air Base, according to icasualties.org, which tracks fatality and injury statistics.
In his earlier remarks to more than 200 Marines preparing to fly to the Middle East, Kelly said that while the war was not over and that Anbar remained a dangerous place, "We are winning it -- there's no doubt."
"After four years of standing firm against a vicious enemy, we have been able to neutralize al-Qaida in Anbar," he said. "This is now spreading throughout Iraq."
Kelly said his mission in the coming weeks and months is to make "the Iraqi army as good as it can possibly be."
Maj. Stephen Van Riper, an operations planner, underscored the reported successes seen in Anbar, saying his study of military history hasn't revealed any instance of the kind of progress made in Anbar ever being reversed.
Van Riper said his goal for U.S. troops is to keep their combat operations to a minimum.
"We would prefer the Iraqis are doing all of it and we are just watching," he said.
-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Planners want to send some units home sooner
CAMP PENDLETON -- Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, the man who will lead more than 11,000 local troops in Iraq for the next 12 months, said Wednesday that his goal is to "work ourselves out of a job."
And if that happens, another Marine officer later said individual units may be sent home long before their scheduled one-year deployment comes to an end.
"As we step back and the training wheels come off for the Iraqi army and security forces, we will stand in the background ready to support them," Kelly said after a ceremony at Camp Pendleton marking the activation of the I Marine Expeditionary Force.
The force, composed of two 5,000-member regimental combat teams and a headquarters group, is on its way to Iraq's Anbar province to relieve the North Carolina-based II Marine Expeditionary Force.
Lt. Col. Chris Hughes said planning also is under way to send as many as possible home before their scheduled one-year deployments end if stability in Anbar continues.
"If it's time to send someone home, we are going to do that," said Hughes, a public affairs officer.
Hughes suggested the earliest that could happen would be at least three months from now. Planners also must take into account bringing home the tons of equipment that have been sent to Iraq to support the troops, he added.
Whether anyone comes home earlier than expected, however, also will depend on the security environment and what the overall U.S commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, thinks is necessary, said Kelly, who is headed to Iraq for the third time.
Petraeus is scheduled to update the president and Congress in March about the overall state of security in Iraq.
Cooperation between U.S. forces and Sunni tribal sheiks in Anbar province, once laden with insurgents and al-Qaida fighters, has apparently led to successes that military planners were saying as recently as two years ago would never happen.
Attacks from roadside bombs, the weapon responsible for the most fatalities and injuries in Iraq, have fallen from around 60 a day to as few as six or seven, Kelly said, adding that most are now found before they can be detonated.
No Camp Pendleton troops have been reported killed in Iraq since Oct. 8. Since the March 2003 invasion, 330 base troops have died in Iraq along with 10 others from Miramar Marine Corps Air Base, according to icasualties.org, which tracks fatality and injury statistics.
In his earlier remarks to more than 200 Marines preparing to fly to the Middle East, Kelly said that while the war was not over and that Anbar remained a dangerous place, "We are winning it -- there's no doubt."
"After four years of standing firm against a vicious enemy, we have been able to neutralize al-Qaida in Anbar," he said. "This is now spreading throughout Iraq."
Kelly said his mission in the coming weeks and months is to make "the Iraqi army as good as it can possibly be."
Maj. Stephen Van Riper, an operations planner, underscored the reported successes seen in Anbar, saying his study of military history hasn't revealed any instance of the kind of progress made in Anbar ever being reversed.
Van Riper said his goal for U.S. troops is to keep their combat operations to a minimum.
"We would prefer the Iraqis are doing all of it and we are just watching," he said.
-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie