It would be interesting to see whether the Marines can actually stabilize the situation there. Currently, most of the US forces over there are mostly special operations qualified personnel like Army Rangers and SEALs. And there's a reason why they are that way.
- The mountainous regions call for very specialized warfare tactics, especially to deal with the many uncertainties in such operations. The regular army soldier and their equipment would not survive very long there.
- The ways in which troops are sent into the fight and extracted are unconventional. They often involve the use of helicopters and parachute jumps. The army infantry are not capable at this.
- Often, fights break out of nowhere and troops are often surrounded and outnumbered, because the enemy knows the terrain very well. Are Marines capable of this?
I tend to see this as a test of the way Marines fight and whether their training is actually enough to handle such situations.
More to come...
3 comments:
Better focus more on training the Afghan forces, as (after all) it is their country.
While in the short run, NATO's got to do the job of policing the place (and flushing the Taliban out of caves etc).
Yup, soon there will be Afghani Marines and Iraqi Marines...
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