WASHINGTON — The top Marine general said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected his proposal to shift Marine forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, reflecting in part the Bush administration’s concern that security gains in Iraq are fragile and reversible.
“After discussion with the secretary and with my colleagues on the Joint Staff, there is a determination that right now the timing is not right to provide additional Marine forces to Afghanistan,” Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Conway’s proposal gives unusual insight into the thinking of the Marine Corps, which sees itself as offering unique capabilities, different in important ways than the Army, with which it has shared the bulk of the work in Iraq since a joint Army-Marine force invaded and toppled Baghdad in 2003.
Conway hinted at those differences, saying Marines prefer serving under fire in a combat zone to performing nation-building duties in Iraq.
