The top-ranking U.S. Marine in Afghanistan says his unit is having some success fighting back the Taliban in Helmand province. While Canadian troops are gradually shifting their focus to reconstruction efforts, the Marines are in Afghanistan purely to fight.
Col. Pete Petronzio, the 47-year-old leader of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, told reporters that he hoped his efforts had reduced the number of Taliban in Kandahar, which neighbours Helmand.
"A bunch of Taliban guys used to live where we are right now and they don’t live there any more," he told reporters in Kandahar Air Field. "And as far as we are concerned, they aren’t coming back. It’s a small gain, but it’s a gain."
When President George Bush agreed to send 2,400 marines into Afghanistan, some analysts said it would help ease the pressure on Canadian soldiers.
But Petronzio said the Marines have not "come to anyone’s rescue."
"We’re a bunch of guys that came here to do a job," he said. "And as professionals in the profession of arms we are no different than the Canadians, than the Brits, than the Dutch."
Petronzio added that on April 15, it was the Canadians who helped the Marines, when the Taliban attacked a convoy travelling near a Canadian forward operating base in Zhari district. Two Marines died.
The Marines are currently scheduled for a one-time, seven-month mission. But U.S. officials are considering sending more because they’re considered to be the best anti-insurgency force Americans have to offer.
Gen. Dan McNeil, the outgoing U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said he expects the Taliban to remain a strong threat unless Pakistan cracks down on insurgents near its border.
"If there are going to be sanctuaries where these terrorists, these extremists, these insurgents can train, can recruit, can regenerate, there’s still going to be a challenge there," McNeill told The Associated Press on Friday.
According to NATO, there was a 50 per cent rise in militant violence in eastern Afghanistan last month, compared to April 2007.
The new U.S. commander of NATO will be Gen. David D. McKiernan. He will have control of a greatly expanded force -- 51,000 troops, compared with the 36,000 McNeill oversaw in February 2007.
"That says to me that all the wags who in late 2006 and early 2007 who were predicting the failure and the fracture of the NATO alliance here probably got it wrong," said McNeill. "And I’m not trying to smirk or anything, I’m just saying people ought to go back and see what was being written."
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