Washington ? The Marine Corps may need to increase in size to sustain deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan without sacrificing needed training or putting undue stress on the corps, the new Marine commandant said Wednesday.

Gen. James Conway also warned that it could take years to adequately train and equip the Iraqi security forces – longer, perhaps, “than the timeline that we probably feel … our country will support.”

“This is tough work, it doesn’t happen overnight,” and patience by the American people will be needed, he said.

Conway, who took on the Marines’ top job just eight days ago, said there are two ways to deal with the ongoing stress on the Marines: “One is reducing the requirement, the other is potentially growing the force for what we call the long war.”

There are currently about 180,000 active duty Marines. Just last week, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said about 2,200 more of them were headed to Iraq’s volatile western Anbar province in an effort to shore up U.S. power there.