The Few, The Proud (the Smart): Marines Figure it Out - It's Time to Quit Iraqby Dave Lindorff | Oct 12 2007 - 10:07am
Over the past year, Bush has pretty much lost his entire Coalition of the Unwilling, with the British, who have already pulled back from Basra into their fortified base, now intending to quit Iraq altogher early next year
But before the Brits close the door behind them, someone else wants to leave too: the United States Marines, America's answer to ancient Greece's Spartan warriors.
According to a remarkable Wednesday article in the New York Times, the Marines have told the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that they'd much prefer to leave Iraq and go take over the fighting in Afghanistan from the US Army, which has some 26,000 troops over there--just about the same number as the 25,000 Marines currently mired in Iraq.
~snip~
The Marines have clearly looked at Iraq and have seen it for the horrific, bloddy, hopeless mess that it is. And with recruitment a growing challenge, and their reputation in tatters thanks to the baby murders in Haditha, and the massive slaughter of thousands in Fallujah, they want to go somewhere, anywhere else, where they can at least claim they're acting under UN or NATO authority, where they won't be seen as occupiers, and where at least some of the people in the host country will like them.
Let the U.S. Army deal with President Bush's Iraq mess.
~snip~
I spoke with one Marine, a young man just back from a second tour of Iraq, who had been part of the assault on Fallujah in late 2004. "It was horrible," he said. "We went in there with no rules of engagement at all. It was just kill anything that moved. We were using hyperbaric explosives that, when you threw them into a house, sucked the life out of every living thing in the building. Then you'd walk in and find old men and little boys."
Rest of article at:
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/10411