President Clinton's hapless efforts to prevent Puerto Rican displeasure at the U.S. military's use of the vital Vieques live-fire training range from harming the campaigns being waged by his wife and Vice President Gore is giving rise to the worst of both worlds: Navy and Marine battle groups unprepared for combat operations and increasingly expensive bribes for unappeasable separatists.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Since World War II up until 2008, we maintained the dominant military force in the Mediterranean, consisting of at least one carrier battle group and an amphibious Ready Group with an embarked Marine battalion, along with logistic support ships and other units.

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These ranged from transporting Marine and Army units and much of their equipment into battle, to search and rescue, special forces and electronic warfare operations.

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TIKRIT, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines rescued seven American soldiers held by Iraqis north of Baghdad on Sunday before rushing off to join in the battle for Tikrit, according to a Canadian reporter embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

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Brannon described Hutchins, 23, from Plymouth, Massachusetts, as an "outstanding Marine" who led his infantry squad in a dangerous area where troops had to battle stress and attacks from insurgents.

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