Remember the politicization of the body armor issue a couple of months ago that turned out to be a total fraud?  Well, if the Marines have their way soon many of them won’t be wearing body armor anyway:

The commander of a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Iraq wants to have his Marines begin patrolling without helmets and with less body armor.

But the Marines would have the gear at their local patrol bases and could resume wearing it whenever needed, said Lt. Col. Kelly Alexander, commanding officer of Task Force Highlander, part of Regimental Combat Team-2, which operates in western Anbar province.

The proposed changes apply to what is called PPE, or personal protective equipment.

Alexander said a change to a “soft posture” can now be considered because the security situation has improved significantly in recent months. That is especially so in local cities where the Marines work closely with an ever-growing Iraqi police force and where residents have shown a newfound willingness to tip the police to insurgent activity.

“In my opinion … things are good enough now that we can begin to institute a reduction in the PPE” in the task force’s area of operation, Alexander said in an interview this week.

This will be quite a development and a definite sign of progress in Anbar province if the Marines do shed their body armor and helmets to go on patrol.  Now if they could only take Harry Reid on patrol with them and show him this progress.