With British, Canadian and U.S. forces fighting in close proximity here, for example, their operations officers must agree even on such details as requests for medical evacuation of the wounded: the decisions include who takes the call, whose aircraft responds and where the wounded soldier is taken.
At the staff level, such difficulties usually are worked out with grace and humor and with a warrior's sense of shared mission. In response to a Marine request this week for help with supplies, a British liaison officer was accommodating. "You'll get what we have," he said.
Bigger problems run afoul of conflicting strategies and easily bruised national pride.
At another planning session, a question arose about the capabilities of a British combat unit. "I can tell you they have killed more people than anybody else in this room," a British major declared hotly. There was shocked silence from the roomful of Marines, most of whom have done two or three combat tours in Iraq and don't boast about battlefield exploits.
Meantime, the 2,500 Marines here train, clean their weapons yet again, take long conditioning runs along the dust-choked perimeter roads, and wonder when they're going to begin what they came for.
"This is killing us," says a staff sergeant. "There's only so much training you can do, especially considering that most of my Marines just got back from Iraq."
But living conditions at this huge base are comfortable, with a well-stocked PX, an off-duty recreation area with a Burger King and pizza shop and an Afghan bazaar. Marines sleep on cots in air-conditioned tents, and the food is considered above-par.
"This place is like a resort, and that makes the waiting a lot easier," said Lt. Shaun Miller, 24, a platoon leader from Austin, Texas.
david.wood@baltsun.com
