In Afghanistan, Marines Say Now's Not The Time For U.S. Pullout

U.S. Marines with Golf Company patrol with Afghan forces through a harvested poppy field in Northern Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Later this month, President Barack Obama is expected to announce just how many troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan starting in July. Whether the U.S. should still be engaged in Afghanistan has been hotly contested for years, but the budget crunch and the killing of Osama bin Laden has only intensified the debate.

Marines in the Golf Company agree that now is not the time to pull combat troops out of Afghanistan. Some Marines are OK with the president pulling out support troops like the construction battalion, but not combat troops.

Marines say they've made some gains against the Taliban and they finally have the right amount of troops... finally have everything they need. They finally feel like they're making progress. They just want more time.

The handoff to the Afghan military is complicated, because there are few well-trained units.

Sgt. John Maulder says if you've ever seen Afghan forces during a firefight, all they do is "pray and pray." To leave them now, he said, would just mean the country would descend into a "civil uprising" and the U.S. would just have to turn back around to help them.