USMC: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27afghan.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

The link above will take you to a great NY Times piece that just made my day. It's about the success of a 24th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) campaign to drive the Taliban out of strongholds in southern Afghanistan. Of ourse, the trick now is keeping them out (with only NATO and Afghans to do it), but it's clear the Marines have created a major momentum swing.

The Marines oversaw the quickest and most sweeping counterinsurgency campaign in the history of...history beginning in fall 2006 in Anbar Province, Iraq. There were of course many factors driving the Sunnis' wholesale rejection of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but here's one that I hope future historians don't leave out when they document the turnaround -- the battlespace owners were the Marines. Having spent time in training and overseas with each of the four major branches, I can tell you this: pound-for-pound, man-for-man, the Marines are the best fighting (and peacekeeping) force this country has.