Pentagon officials have been looking at the drastically reduced violence in Anbar province and are contemplating redeploying the bulk of the 25,000 Marines to Afghanistan:The Marine Corps is making a bid to take over the command and primary mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, anticipating a gradual withdrawal of its troops from Iraq's western province of Anbar, senior military and Pentagon officials said. The proposal, discussed at senior levels of the Pentagon last week, would have the Marine Corps replace the Army as the lead U.S. force in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops number more than 25,000 and make up the largest contingent of the NATO-led force there. No major Marine Corps combat units are deployed to Afghanistan, although recently Marine special operations units have served there. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, announced the withdrawal of 2,200 Marines from Anbar last month as the first element of a drawdown of approximately 21,700 combat troops...(Read Full Post)