Marines Launch Southern Afghan Operation

The really bad news for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan is this from the article here at CNN:

Many of the men in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was once al Qaeda in Iraq's stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.

What that means is that these Marines emerged out of the bloodbath and hell of Ramadi - they have seen it all and if I was the Taliban, I'd be scared shitless. The article describes beginning operations of the Marines and it is pretty clear that the Taliban are intimidated. More from the article:

But on the initial assault, Moder said his men were prepared to face mines and improvised explosive devices and "anybody that wants to fight us."
One Marine in Charlie Company, Corp. Matt Gregorio, a 26-year-old from Boston, alluded to the fact the Marines have been in Afghanistan for six weeks without carrying out any missions. He said the mood was "anxious, excited."
"We've been waiting a while to get this going," he said

Again, if you are the Taliban, the LAST thing you want is a bunch of "anxious" and "excited" Marines moving into your area! This is going to be interesting to watch.

U.S. Marines launch Afghan operation

OUTSIDE GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) -- 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 Lejeune, North Carolina for a seven-month deployment. Another 1,200 Marines arrived to train Afghan police.
Maj. Tom Clinton, the U.S. commander at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, a British outpost 16 kilometers (10 miles) west of Garmser, said the Taliban had undoubtedly seen the Marines moving into the area in recent days.
But he said the fact that the Marines were assaulting the town by helicopter and were moving through by foot was likely a surprise.
"There's all kinds of reports of (Taliban) commanders telling their guys to grab their stuff and get out there" to fight, said Clinton, 36, of Swampscott, Massachusetts. "It's no secret they know we're here. It's just a question of when and where" an assault would happen.