General - Marines will reduce presence in Iraq this spring

WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps will shrink the size of its ground combat force in Iraq this spring, with the Army making a corresponding increase, the Marines' operations chief said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, said in an Associated Press interview that the Marines will draw down from about 33,000 to about 23,000 when a fresh contingent headed by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force is fully in place in Iraq in March.

"This has been planned all along," he said. He said it does not suggest the Marines are too taxed by commitments around the globe.

Overall, the U.S. force is scheduled to drop by March or April from the current 153,000 to the 138,000 level that prevailed before a buildup late last year in advance of the Jan. 30 elections. Much of that temporary increase was achieved by extending the tours of Army units. The Marines also added several thousand, and they are now getting ready to return home.

Huly said that for planning purposes the Marines expect to maintain their force level in Iraq at about the 23,000 level "for the foreseeable future." He declined to define that more precisely.

A former deputy commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, Huly said he has seen no evidence that the fast pace of deployments since the start of the Iraq war -- with Marines spending seven months in Iraq, then returning with only seven months' break at home -- is hurting recruiting.

"So far it's not breaking their spirit, their morale or their will to fight," he said.

In fact he thinks the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are a plus for attracting and retaining Marines.

"My 35 years in the Marine Corps have shown me that that's why young men and women join the Marines -- to go do that kind of stuff," he said. "Most of them would rather be going back to Iraq than sitting around at Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton shooting blanks. They make more money over there. It's more exciting."

The Marines say they are on track to meeting their recruiting goal for this year, although in January they fell short of their monthly target for the first time in almost 10 years.

More than 450 Marines have died in the Iraq war. Marines bore the brunt of the fighting in Fallujah last November when U.S. forces attacked the city to eliminate a stronghold of the insurgency.

Huly said the Marine Corps is holding up well under the strain, although the Corps is operating its vehicles and aircraft at a faster pace than officials had budgeted for before the war began.

"I think the strain on the equipment will probably show up before the strain on the people does," he said.

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