Posted on 08/05/2007 2:09:50 PM PDT by bnelson44
Stars and Stripes:
The commander of a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Iraq wants to have his Marines begin patrolling without helmets and with less body armor. <...> Alexander said a change to a "soft posture" can now be considered because the security situation has improved significantly in recent months.
How dare he make a political statement while in uniform!!!!!
How secure is it? From sidebar at the same link:
Security conditions in the western Iraq city of Ramadi have improved so much since coalition forces wrested control from al-Qaida that 80 days have now passed without a single attack, according to Col. John Charlton, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Security has blossomed not only in the city, but in the entire 8,900 square-mile province of Anbar, of which Ramadi is the capitol, Charlton told Pentagon reporters Friday during a remote video briefing from his Ramadi headquarters.
In February, the 6,000 U.S. servicemembers under Charlton's command and the 12,000 Iraqi security forces were braving between 30 and 35 daily attacks from the organization known as al-Qaida in Iraq, which had declared Anbar, particularly Ramadi, as the center of its operations.
Attacks now average one a day of fewer, Charlton said.
Some weeks, there are no attacks throughout the province, Charlton said.
Believe it or not, the soft cap option might not be popular with all Marines. Patrick Lasswell:
This weekend I talked with a Marine friend of mine who recently came back from a tour in Anbar province. His base was attacked (incompetently) twice while he was there, and that used to be the worst place in the whole country. He was disappointed in the level of action he saw and felt that as Marines his unit should have been rotated to the active fighting in Baghdad. When troops come back complaining that there aren't enough fights to go around, you are not losing.
Very well said.
I do hope (and believe) the situation in Ramadi has become safe(r) now. But sending troops on the streets without helmets is a risk which I never would venture.
ping
Hopefully enough insurgents have been purged so that they will not be able to do that.
If you ask me it should be the choice of the individual soldier to decide whether he wants to go out on patrol without body armor.This General seems to be gambling with the lives of his troops.
I agree. It would be foolish to not utilize every ‘safety’ item at their disposal.
I hope so too. But with a soft cap policy, it only takes one insurgent to make the policy a failure.
Having been there, there is no way I would venture out without a weapon, ammo and full combat gear.
Did you see this?
Al-Qaeda has no presence in Ramadi anymore -US Commander
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1876318/posts
I had not read that. It’s great that Ramadi is safer now than 6 months ago. Heck, I’d probably ditch some of that armor, but I’d keep the main vest and the Kevlar.
Ping to this thread and the link at Post #15
LOL! Gotta love those Marines!
I once took my helmet off while clearing bunkers of Iraqis in Kuwait City. I heard armor moving up top and thought it was a counterattack by the Iraqis, so I ran for the door in the pitch-black bunker and caught my forehead on the jam, very nearly knocking myself out and seeing many stars. Although I wounded myself, like Kerry did, I refused to put in for a Purple Heart, unlike Kerry.
Plus, helmets rubbed all my hair off over 20 years in the Corps.
In the end, if I can take it off, I will, provided the security situation looks good enough, as it appears to here. However, before doing so, I would bounce the idea off of Col. Bryan McCoy (CO, 7th Marines), to get his chop. If he said “bad idea,” I would super-glue that helmet to my brain-housing group forever.
LOL. Hate when that happens.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.