marinemom
11-18-03, 05:57 AM
Troops to assume long-term duties typically left to Army
By Rick Rogers and James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
November 17, 2003
Twenty thousand San Diego-based Marines will return to Iraq early next year, raising questions about whether the role of occupying force really suits the Marines and what degree of danger they will face.
"The Marines had a slogan that they win battles and the Army wins wars, but these protracted stability operations are what we have," defense analyst Michael Vickers said.
Since World War II, the Corps has been legendary for strikes from sea and air, while long-term land operations are generally left to the Army. The Marines at times have taken on nontraditional tasks over their 228-year history.
Vickers said Marines waded ashore at Da Nang in March 1965 and that during the Vietnam War two divisions, including the 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, helped secure the northernmost part of that country until 1971. At the height of the war, about 85,700 Marines were deployed to Vietnam.
"The Marines were also a major small-war force from 1915 to the 1930s" in Haiti, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, said Vickers, director of strategic studies for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "So there has been swings in what the Marine Corps does, and we might be seeing a new era for the Marines."
Whether the Marine Corps wants the job of caretaker and terrorist-hunter might be another story.
"I don't think there is any doubt that if the Marines were given a vote, they'd vote that the Army should continue doing this role," said retired Marine Gen. Joe Hoar, former head of the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military activities in the Persian Gulf region.
"This is a nontraditional role for the Marines," said Hoar, who retired in 1994 and lives in Del Mar. "But the Army is deeply overcommitted around the world and is not capable of meeting all its responsibilities."
Since most of Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division returned from Iraq last summer, the unit commander, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, has pushed to get the troops retrained and their equipment repaired.
Mattis wanted the division ready by November. That marching order has been largely met, said several Camp Pendleton military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
When the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Michael Hagee, was asked this week whether his Marines were prepared to spend years rotating through Iraq, he replied, "We are prepared to do anything."
Regardless of whether that is their traditional role, defense experts say – and Hoar agrees – that the Marines are the best choice to do the tough job of patrolling a section of Iraq that includes part of the "Sunni Triangle." There, U.S. forces have come under frequent deadly attack.
"Thank God for the Marines, because the Army needs them," said defense analyst Patrick Garrett with GlobalSecurity.org, an independent think tank in Alexandria, Va.
In earlier interviews, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander, Lt. Gen. James Conway, said the Corps' emphasis on infantry was an advantage during post-combat operations during the summer in southern Iraq because ground troops were less frightening to civilians than lumbering tanks. The 1st Marine Division is the infantry portion of the expeditionary force.
Before turning over the region to the multinational forces led by Poland, Marine battalion commanders were given extraordinary powers to oversee Iraqi regions, called governates. The lieutenant colonels controlled police, utilities, education and other government services, negotiating with local Iraqi officials.
But that was then.
"The problem is the environment of Iraq today is very different than the environment they left a few months ago," Garrett said. "It will be interesting to see if they adapt."
Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst with the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the Marines have experience in counter-insurgency warfare – valuable experience in an Iraq besieged by guerrilla actions against coalition troops.
O'Hanlon cautioned that the Marines have too few civil affairs personnel who are experts in government services, policing and cultural relations. Compared to the Army, the Marines also are light on military police units.
He and Garrett said the Marines probably should emphasize urban warfare and cultural training in the months before the local troops ship out in spring. Both will be important in the continuing search for insurgents, Saddam Hussein and lasting peace.
Peace has been an elusive commodity. In the past five weeks, at least 62 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, many of them within the Sunni Triangle.
But security in the region the Marines will be taking over is improving and it could be a much safer place when the Marines get there, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer for the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank.
"There is good news in what is going on there," Thompson said. "The situation is improving fairly rapidly, and is not as bad as many environments that the Marines have entered."
But it is not all good news, he said. For example, intelligence on the ground has been poor.
"No one can really tell you who is attacking us," Thompson said. "We don't have a good grasp on who the enemy is and their strategy for attacking us. We know that in the end we have to kill them, but finding them is the problem."
"My guess is that the Marines will see violence that isn't as bad as people fear," Thompson said.
By Rick Rogers and James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
November 17, 2003
Twenty thousand San Diego-based Marines will return to Iraq early next year, raising questions about whether the role of occupying force really suits the Marines and what degree of danger they will face.
"The Marines had a slogan that they win battles and the Army wins wars, but these protracted stability operations are what we have," defense analyst Michael Vickers said.
Since World War II, the Corps has been legendary for strikes from sea and air, while long-term land operations are generally left to the Army. The Marines at times have taken on nontraditional tasks over their 228-year history.
Vickers said Marines waded ashore at Da Nang in March 1965 and that during the Vietnam War two divisions, including the 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, helped secure the northernmost part of that country until 1971. At the height of the war, about 85,700 Marines were deployed to Vietnam.
"The Marines were also a major small-war force from 1915 to the 1930s" in Haiti, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, said Vickers, director of strategic studies for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "So there has been swings in what the Marine Corps does, and we might be seeing a new era for the Marines."
Whether the Marine Corps wants the job of caretaker and terrorist-hunter might be another story.
"I don't think there is any doubt that if the Marines were given a vote, they'd vote that the Army should continue doing this role," said retired Marine Gen. Joe Hoar, former head of the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military activities in the Persian Gulf region.
"This is a nontraditional role for the Marines," said Hoar, who retired in 1994 and lives in Del Mar. "But the Army is deeply overcommitted around the world and is not capable of meeting all its responsibilities."
Since most of Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division returned from Iraq last summer, the unit commander, Maj. Gen. James Mattis, has pushed to get the troops retrained and their equipment repaired.
Mattis wanted the division ready by November. That marching order has been largely met, said several Camp Pendleton military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
When the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Michael Hagee, was asked this week whether his Marines were prepared to spend years rotating through Iraq, he replied, "We are prepared to do anything."
Regardless of whether that is their traditional role, defense experts say – and Hoar agrees – that the Marines are the best choice to do the tough job of patrolling a section of Iraq that includes part of the "Sunni Triangle." There, U.S. forces have come under frequent deadly attack.
"Thank God for the Marines, because the Army needs them," said defense analyst Patrick Garrett with GlobalSecurity.org, an independent think tank in Alexandria, Va.
In earlier interviews, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander, Lt. Gen. James Conway, said the Corps' emphasis on infantry was an advantage during post-combat operations during the summer in southern Iraq because ground troops were less frightening to civilians than lumbering tanks. The 1st Marine Division is the infantry portion of the expeditionary force.
Before turning over the region to the multinational forces led by Poland, Marine battalion commanders were given extraordinary powers to oversee Iraqi regions, called governates. The lieutenant colonels controlled police, utilities, education and other government services, negotiating with local Iraqi officials.
But that was then.
"The problem is the environment of Iraq today is very different than the environment they left a few months ago," Garrett said. "It will be interesting to see if they adapt."
Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst with the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said the Marines have experience in counter-insurgency warfare – valuable experience in an Iraq besieged by guerrilla actions against coalition troops.
O'Hanlon cautioned that the Marines have too few civil affairs personnel who are experts in government services, policing and cultural relations. Compared to the Army, the Marines also are light on military police units.
He and Garrett said the Marines probably should emphasize urban warfare and cultural training in the months before the local troops ship out in spring. Both will be important in the continuing search for insurgents, Saddam Hussein and lasting peace.
Peace has been an elusive commodity. In the past five weeks, at least 62 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, many of them within the Sunni Triangle.
But security in the region the Marines will be taking over is improving and it could be a much safer place when the Marines get there, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer for the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank.
"There is good news in what is going on there," Thompson said. "The situation is improving fairly rapidly, and is not as bad as many environments that the Marines have entered."
But it is not all good news, he said. For example, intelligence on the ground has been poor.
"No one can really tell you who is attacking us," Thompson said. "We don't have a good grasp on who the enemy is and their strategy for attacking us. We know that in the end we have to kill them, but finding them is the problem."
"My guess is that the Marines will see violence that isn't as bad as people fear," Thompson said.