24th MEU on the offensive

[Wildcat]

Early this morning, 24th MEU rolled into Helmand Province in force, using helos and Humvees to seize the Taliban-controlled town of Garmser.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/28/world/main4053148.shtml

U.S. Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan's most violent province early Tuesday in the first major American operation in the region in years.

Several hundred Marines, many of them veterans of the conflict in Iraq, pushed into the town of Garmser in predawn light in an operation to drive out militants, stretching NATO's presence into an area littered with poppy fields and classified as Taliban territory.

U.S. commanders say Taliban fighters have been expecting an assault and have been setting up improvised explosive devices in response. It wasn't known how much resistance the Marines would face in Garmser, where the British have a small base on the town's edge but whose main marketplace is closed because of the Taliban threat.

The assault in Helmand province - backed by U.S. artillery in the desert and fighter aircraft in the sky - is the first major task undertaken by the 2,300 Marines in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which arrived last month from Camp Lejuene, North Carolina for a seven-month deployment. Another 1,200 Marines arrived to train Afghan police.

[Wildcat]

Further updates on the offensive in Helmand.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353044,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24368412#24368412

[Galrahn]

There is a remarkable lack of coverage on this issue, the European press is doing a good job though, probably because it is in the British zone.

For all the discussion regarding the possibility of Marines deploying Afghanistan, now that they are there and on the offensive, I've seen only reporting, and virtually no analysis from the US observers, although a few of the British blogs are doing an excellent job.

[Ron Humphrey]

There is a remarkable lack of coverage on this issue, the European press is doing a good job though, probably because it is in the British zone.

For all the discussion regarding the possibility of Marines deploying Afghanistan, now that they are there and on the offensive, I've seen only reporting, and virtually no analysis from the US observers, although a few of the British blogs are doing an excellent job.

Military analyst on TV who should ,who shouldn't: should they be briefed should they not, where exactly do we expect the major networks to get any kind of real feedback thats in a form that they understand comfortably. And along with that comes the lack of sufficient insight on how to spin it to their purposes:wry: