On Tuesday, Commandant Gen. James Conway, ranking officer of the Marine Corps, told the House Armed Services Committee that surging U.S. Marines into Al Anbar beyond six or seven months would diminish the Corps’s ability to respond to other potential hot spots.
We feel like we would be able to respond with those forces that are not committed to Iraq or Afghanistan, but the response would be slower than we might like, would not have all the equipment sets that [would] ordinarily be the case, and there’s certainly risk associated with that.
We already knew the Marine Corps was too small to carry out all the missions that are asked of it, and an increased deployment to Iraq will have an effect on readiness, but one wonders if Conway isn’t exaggerating just a little bit in order to create a more favorable environment for increased funding. Still, the commandant made clear that the Corps was prepared for a long-term commitment to stabilizing Iraq:
I have seen it [the surge] characterized as a ‘hail Mary’ and that’s the last play of the game. I don’t necessarily see it that way. I think this is the latest in a series of operations to attempt to stabilize Baghdad and the Al Anbar province. And I’m not sure it will be the last.
