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October 12, 2008 10:22:31 AM CDT

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Pentagon Backtracks, Extends Afghanistan Tours

Posted Jul 3, 08 2:57 PM CDT in Politics 

(AP) – The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, a spokesman confirmed today.

Military leaders as recently as yesterday stressed the need for additional troops in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has repeatedly said he did not intend to extend or replace the Marines in Afghanistan, calling their deployment there an extraordinary, one-time effort to help tamp down the increasing violence in the south.

Source Associated Press

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A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, gives an Afghan girl a piece of candy during a patrol through a village near the town of Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan Sunday, May...   (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, gestures during a news conference at the Pentagon, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 in Washington.   (Luis Alvarez)
U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit listen to their commanding officer as they prepare to leave in convoy from a forward operating base in southern Afghanistan Monday April 28, 2008.   (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
US Marines stand before the helmets, weapons, dogtags and boots of two fallen marines during a ceremony in their honor at Camp Bastion, in southern Afghanistan on April 22, 2008   (AP Photo)
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Afghanistan  • Pentagon  • War on Terror  • Robert Gates  • Afghanistan war  • US Marine Corps  • Defense Secretary


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