Marines in Afstan: The Globe and Mail catches up...

...and starts with a clanger. Here's the first paragraph of today's front-page story (note the dreaded "I" word in the headline, and the threat of "Americanization"):

U.S. brings Iraq-like surge to Afghan conflict

LASH KARGAH, AFGHANISTAN -- A force of 3,500 U.S. Marines charged into southern Afghanistan this morning in an effort to reduce the heavy casualties suffered by Canadian and British soldiers in the region, bringing with them new pressures on Canada and its allies to adapt to U.S. tactics and methods.

Hardly all charging in this morning. And the force referred to in southern Afstan is not 3,500 strong but rather is the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit of some 2,300 personnel (around another 1,000 Marines are being sent where needed, mainly to help train Afghan police). Almost everything in the Globe's story is covered in these Torch posts; amazing that the Globe story reads as if it's full of hot new stuff--but that's journalism at "Canada's National Newspaper" I guess:

March 10, 2008

Marines arriving at Kandahar

March 13, 2008

What the Marines will do in Afstan

April 10, 2008

101st Airborne replaces 82nd Airborne in Afstan

April 11, 2008

Marines operational under ISAF

April 11, 2008

Marines in Afstan and command problems

April 17, 2008

First Marine fatalities in southern Afstan (the Canadian media missed that)

April 27, 2008

Marines in Helmand/US Afghan role overall

Here are a couple of other stories running today.

1) AP (the para excerpted gets things right):

Marines launch operation in Afghanistan's Taliban territory
...
The assault — backed by U.S. artillery in the desert and fighter aircraft in the sky — is the first major task undertaken by the 2,300 Marines in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which arrived last month from Camp Lejuene, North Carolina for a seven-month deployment. Another 1,200 Marines arrived to train Afghan police.

2) The Times (the para excerpted makes the same mistake as the Globe):

US Marines to ‘stir things up’ in Helmand
...
General Dan McNeill, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, said that the Marine expeditionary force of about 3,500 troops would “stir things up” in remote southern districts of Helmand, where few if any Nato troops have operated in the past seven years.

I'm sure the general did not give the MEU's strength as 3,500.

This leader, also in The Times, makes a key point about US operations that the Globe story rather underplays in its raising of the "Americanization" bogeyman:

...
As we report today, the coming of the Americans offers Britain a chance to think again about its strategy in southern Afghanistan. Contrary to some of the stereotypes initially made in Iraq, it is the United States Army, radically reshaped by General David Petraeus and his associate, General Dan MacNeill, that has been notably successful at combining offensive operations on the ground with the building of roads, schools and hospitals that win the hearts and minds of the local population. In Helmand, by contrast, Britain has been impressive on the battlefield but the track record on the humanitarian front has been patchy. Although General MacNeill, the overall commander in Afghanistan, is too diplomatic to put it so bluntly, there are lessons that Britain should learn from the way in which the US military conducts business...

Update: Following in the Globe's printprints, a column by Iain Hunter in the Victoria Times Colonist; one does despair sometimes. It seems that for far too many Canadians the very word "American" now has almost as negative a connotation as "Nazi". An exaggeration but...

Canadians enlisted in new American-style Afghan war

Bush has come to shove in southern Afghanistan. The U.S. commander-in-chief has sent in the marines...