CMC outlines next objectives in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

Commandant Gen. James Conway offered few specifics about the type of offensive that may be coming, saying only that Marja is a “pending operation” that will be a top priority in the coming weeks and months.


CMC outlines next objectives in Afghanistan
By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 15, 2009 21:45:12 EST

The Corps’ top officer said Marines in Afghanistan hope to win the support of the Afghan people by stopping a “murder-intimidation campaign” in Marja, a town in Helmand province where many Taliban fighters and drug smugglers fled they were routed from nearby areas this past summer.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the Pentagon, Commandant Gen. James Conway offered few specifics about the type of offensive that may be coming, saying only that Marja is a “pending operation” that will be a top priority in the coming weeks and months.

“You win the confidence of the people, whether it be Iraq or Afghanistan, by being the strongest tribe,” Conway said. “That means there can be no place in our area of operations where we don’t go. Right now, Marja is one of those places, so Marja has to be cracked open.”

Marja is located about 10 miles from Nawah-ye Barakzai, commonly known as Nawah, the area in Helmand province that 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, seized this summer. It is split by irrigation canals built by the U.S. government in the 1950s and 60s “as a way to counter Soviet influence in Afghanistan,” according to a Marine news release.

At one time, the canals helped wheat fields prosper, but over the years those fields have been replaced by high concentrations of opium-producing poppies, and they now offer additional protection to drug smugglers because U.S. troops and vehicles struggle to get across.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/12/marine_conway_121509w/