Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
February 25, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: The improvements to security in Iraq’s Anbar Province are leading to some major changes for U.S. military personnel.
National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin begins a series of stories on how American troops are dealing with the new realities in the region by reporting on a Marine unit that is looking for a fight and not finding one.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: The biggest enemy Marines in Anbar Province are fighting these days is complacency. They tell us to wear our flak jackets just in case. But most units are returning to the U.S. with no wounded and no killed in action.
CPL. DAVID VAUGHAN [U.S. Marine Corps]: Zero. No wounded. We haven’t had anything going on.
MARINE: Most of it is trying to keep boredom off.
GRIFFIN: But Marine Sgt. Beau Mattioda remembers the bad old days. He fought in Ramadi when Anbar was the heart of darkness and can’t believe the turnaround.
SGT. BEAU MATTIODA [U.S. Marine Corps]: It really makes it worth it. (Laughs, expletive deleted.) I’ve got a good friend who lost both of his arms right here, and it really makes it worth it.
GRIFFIN: Mattioda himself was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Ramadi.
MATTIODA: There was an eerie feeling, but the changes that were made, the people that were in there, it was just incredible.
GRIFFIN: Did you ever think that it was going to turn around like this when you’re fighting before?
MATTIODA: No, no. I never could have imagined anything like that. It’s just really good to know that we’re not over here for nothing.
GRIFFIN: The Pentagon said today U.S. troop levels would be down to 140,000 by July, a bit higher than before the surge.
Here in Iraq, most of these guys say they’re bored. There’s not a lot for them to shoot at. They’re really in the business of nation-building right now. Many of them tell me they want to go to Afghanistan, where the fight is. But to do that, the Marines would have to withdraw from Anbar.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway did a back-to-back tour of Iraq and Afghanistan to see how soon he could pull his Marines out and redirect them to Afghanistan to do what they do best: fight. He was asked about this at town hall meeting after town hall meeting along the way.
GEN. JAMES CONWAY [U.S. Marine Corps Commandant]:You think that we’re not manned or equipped or trained to do the nation-building thing, although we’re doing it pretty well right now. It’s not our forte. And yet as expeditionary an environment as Afghanistan is, it seems pretty well suited.
GRIFFIN: In Afghanistan, the first Marines to be deployed since just after 9/11 have just arrived. They were sent when the European NATO allies failed to deploy. We were the first journalists to talk to them.
MAJ. CLIFF CARPENTER [U.S. Marine Corps]: We’re excited to get it set up so we can get the rest of our guys in and get started.
GRIFFIN: The contracting company Kellogg, Brown and Root is building the tent barracks in Kandahar.
COL. PATRICK KANEWSKE [U.S. Marine Corps]: This has all gone up here in the last couple of weeks.
GRIFFIN: These Marines don’t want to be seen as the cavalry.
KANEWSKE: The good news is that people like Marines. The bad news is people like Marines. (Laughter.)
GRIFFIN: If they’re going to stay past October, they’ll have to start pulling out of Anbar.
Traveling with the Marine Commandant, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
HUME: Tomorrow night we’ll have the second installment of Jennifer’s series from Iraq and Afghanistan: an interview with Gen. David Petraeus and a look at the tug of war brewing between him and the other generals about drawing down from Iraq.
February 25, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: The improvements to security in Iraq’s Anbar Province are leading to some major changes for U.S. military personnel.
National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin begins a series of stories on how American troops are dealing with the new realities in the region by reporting on a Marine unit that is looking for a fight and not finding one.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: The biggest enemy Marines in Anbar Province are fighting these days is complacency. They tell us to wear our flak jackets just in case. But most units are returning to the U.S. with no wounded and no killed in action.
CPL. DAVID VAUGHAN [U.S. Marine Corps]: Zero. No wounded. We haven’t had anything going on.
MARINE: Most of it is trying to keep boredom off.
GRIFFIN: But Marine Sgt. Beau Mattioda remembers the bad old days. He fought in Ramadi when Anbar was the heart of darkness and can’t believe the turnaround.
SGT. BEAU MATTIODA [U.S. Marine Corps]: It really makes it worth it. (Laughs, expletive deleted.) I’ve got a good friend who lost both of his arms right here, and it really makes it worth it.
GRIFFIN: Mattioda himself was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Ramadi.
MATTIODA: There was an eerie feeling, but the changes that were made, the people that were in there, it was just incredible.
GRIFFIN: Did you ever think that it was going to turn around like this when you’re fighting before?
MATTIODA: No, no. I never could have imagined anything like that. It’s just really good to know that we’re not over here for nothing.
GRIFFIN: The Pentagon said today U.S. troop levels would be down to 140,000 by July, a bit higher than before the surge.
Here in Iraq, most of these guys say they’re bored. There’s not a lot for them to shoot at. They’re really in the business of nation-building right now. Many of them tell me they want to go to Afghanistan, where the fight is. But to do that, the Marines would have to withdraw from Anbar.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway did a back-to-back tour of Iraq and Afghanistan to see how soon he could pull his Marines out and redirect them to Afghanistan to do what they do best: fight. He was asked about this at town hall meeting after town hall meeting along the way.
GEN. JAMES CONWAY [U.S. Marine Corps Commandant]:You think that we’re not manned or equipped or trained to do the nation-building thing, although we’re doing it pretty well right now. It’s not our forte. And yet as expeditionary an environment as Afghanistan is, it seems pretty well suited.
GRIFFIN: In Afghanistan, the first Marines to be deployed since just after 9/11 have just arrived. They were sent when the European NATO allies failed to deploy. We were the first journalists to talk to them.
MAJ. CLIFF CARPENTER [U.S. Marine Corps]: We’re excited to get it set up so we can get the rest of our guys in and get started.
GRIFFIN: The contracting company Kellogg, Brown and Root is building the tent barracks in Kandahar.
COL. PATRICK KANEWSKE [U.S. Marine Corps]: This has all gone up here in the last couple of weeks.
GRIFFIN: These Marines don’t want to be seen as the cavalry.
KANEWSKE: The good news is that people like Marines. The bad news is people like Marines. (Laughter.)
GRIFFIN: If they’re going to stay past October, they’ll have to start pulling out of Anbar.
Traveling with the Marine Commandant, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
HUME: Tomorrow night we’ll have the second installment of Jennifer’s series from Iraq and Afghanistan: an interview with Gen. David Petraeus and a look at the tug of war brewing between him and the other generals about drawing down from Iraq.