Gung Ho for the Maghreb

Stars & Stripes: Iraq-bound Marines get a taste of Morocco

“When I first got here, I thought that this could be California, and we could do this training at Twentynine Palms, so why come here?” Espinoza said. “It costs a lot of money.”

For all the Marines see of Morocco, they might as well be in California. Apart from the fact that the Moroccan medics had a trick or two to show the Americans, the deployment in Morocco for training appears from the Stars and Stripes article to be wholly gratuitous. The article does not indicate that there is any significant contact with the Moroccan population. Even if there were, it is hard to see how such contact would be helpful to preparing the Marines for Iraq. It might be helpful for the Marines to learn a little Arabic, but Morocco, with its significantly different dialect, is not likely to be much help with respect to language, either. So what are the Marines doing in Morocco,anyway?