Fewer Marines Needed in Iraq's Anbar: General

The Marines’ top general says his two combat units in Iraq’s Anbar province could stand to be deployed elsewhere after the US hands over control there to Iraqi forces next week, the AP reports. “There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there left to fight,” Gen. James Conway says Marines told him during a recent visit.

With once-violent Anbar now relatively quiet, Conway said the US—and his Marines—could be better served by a shift to Afghanistan. “Quite frankly, young Marines join our Corps to go fight for their country," Conway said. "They are doing a very good job of this nation-building business (in Iraq). But it's our view that if there is a stiffer fight going some place else … then that's where we need to be.” (More Marine stories.)