Afstan: Many US Marines to the South?

Maybe US Marines can relieve the pressure for all the construction at Kandahar Air Field (see end of this post for possible numbers):

There is a growing consensus among defense leaders to send a substantial contingent of Marines to Afghanistan, probably beginning next spring, while dramatically reducing their presence in western Iraq, the top Marine general told The Associated Press on Monday.

Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, said in an interview that Marine units tentatively scheduled to go to Iraq next spring are already incorporating some training for Afghanistan into their preparations.

He said he has had discussions with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and believes the Pentagon chief "would not object to the idea of a fairly strategic shift of focus of Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan."

"I don't want to put words in his mouth," said Conway, who has made no secret of his belief that Marines could be put to better use fighting in Afghanistan than their current peacekeeping, nation-building mission in Iraq. Gates understands, he said, "my public stance on the fact that we can be better used elsewhere. And he certainly hasn't told me to pipe down. So I like to think he understands the logic of it."

At the same time, Conway said that when the 22,000 Marines in Iraq's Anbar province leave, he believes they should all go, and not leave training teams behind.

More than a year ago, when early discussions of sending more Marines to Afghanistan became public, Gates signaled opposition to the idea, preferring to maintain the concentration on Iraq.

At that time, Conway said that Gates and others believed the timing wasn't right to shift the Marines out of Anbar province.

On Monday, however, Conway took a decidedly different tone [actually he was already taking it in August this year].

"I just see that people have, over time, understood we don't want to take over Afghanistan, such as was rumored when we first started talking about a shift of forces," Conway said. Instead, he said officials now realize that the Marines are an expeditionary fighting force that is better suited to the Afghanistan battle...

Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops [see this post for the new US command structure] in Afghanistan, has said he needs up to 20,000 additional troops [emphasis added], including four combat brigades and thousands of support troops.

Other military leaders have cautioned, however, that they first need to build the infrastructure to accommodate the troops – including housing and helicopter pads.

Conway countered that the Marines could move in far more quickly because they don't need to wait for such logistical improvements [emphasis added].

"We're prepared to live austere for a time in order to take the fight to the enemy and build our infrastructure around us on deck," said Conway. "We have done that before, we can do it again."

Marine units generally enter combat with whatever resources they need, including their own combat aviation units and helicopters that would enable them to move through the mountainous terrain.

In particular, Conway said that there are serious problems in southern Afghanistan that the Marines can address [emphasis added]. Insurgents there, he said, have lines into Pakistan, much like the Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq's western Anbar province had remote passages from Syria, to move fighters and finances.

Gates has not yet approved additional forces for Afghanistan, but it's expected he may do that fairly soon. After that, military leaders will decide which units will go...

From a story some two weeks ago:

...
The Marines would like to deploy more than 15,000 troops [emphasis added] if Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, newly named head of the U.S. Central Command, approve. About 2,300 Marines have already been sent to Afghanistan to replace units from Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., that are returning home after eight months...

That would be about three quarters of the additional troops Gen. McKiernan wants. Quite a commitment.

Update: See Dave in Pa.'s helpful comment about a Marine Expeditionary Force (more here and here).