General Says Bolstered Afghanistan Deployment Won't Affect Iraq

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 10, 2008 at 10:14 AM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Thousands of Marines in Camp Pendleton are preparing to deploy to Iraq this month. Their commander, Major General John Kelly, says today's announcement by the Pentagon that 3,000 Marines will go to Af

General Says Bolstered Afghanistan Deployment Won't Affect Iraq

(Photo: Marine Major General John Kelly. Alison St John/KPBS )

Thousands of Marines in Camp Pendleton are preparing to deploy to Iraq this month. Their commander, Major General John Kelly, says today's announcement by the Pentagon that 3,000 Marines will go to Afghanistan should not affect the Iraq deployment. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

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Some Marines have already left Camp Pendleton, others are due to leave in the next two to three weeks, to replace returning battalions.

Their commander, Marine Major General John Kelly says he's not surprised to hear Marines will also be deployed to Afghanistan, since violence is down in Al Anbar province.

Kelly : If the United States of America is in a war, Marines ought to be there. Marines do like to fight. We’d rather be in a tough fight than an easy fight if you will, although I really would caution people to not to get too far out in front on this peace dividend thing, if you will, in Iraq.

Major General Kelly says he does not expect the Afghanistan deployment to affect the Marines currently heading out to Iraq. Altogether 11,000 are due to go, most for a seven-month deployment.

He himself expects to be commanding Marines in Al Anbar province for the next year.

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Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.