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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.How dare he make a political statement while in uniform!!!!!
<...>
Alexander said a change to a "soft posture" can now be considered because the security situation has improved significantly in recent months.
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.
