Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Kansas City Star
January 20, 2008
Pg. 12
By Scott Canon, The Kansas City Star
LEAVENWORTH -- Iraqis could be chiefly in control of the security in the north of their country within a year, says the general recently returned from commanding forces there.
Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told officers at Fort Leavenworth last week that he expected Iraqi security forces to take the lead in day-to-day patrols in the northern provinces within 12 to 18 months if U.S. commanders continue to build up the capabilities of the Iraqis and the population's confidence in them.
The first province transferred to Iraqi security was Muthanna in July 2006, followed by Dhi Qar, An Najaf, Maysan, part of Irbil, Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk, Karbala and Basra. The general thinks Diyala, Salah ad Din, Ninawa, Al Tameen provinces and the rest of Irbil could see Iraqis assuming the lead in security in little over a year.
Mixon said gains in the north came ahead of last year's U.S. troop surge and before the rewriting of American doctrine for fighting the insurgency.
As early as November 2006, he said, his troops were setting up smaller remote bases more in touch with the lives of ordinary Iraqis and courting tribal sheikhs and provincial officials.
"I don't know what's new about counterinsurgency," Mixon said.
That runs counter to enthusiasm generated among officers by a new and much-lauded counterinsurgency manual published in 2006 under the direction of Gen. David Petraeus when he was the commander at Leavenworth. It was the first revision of U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine in decades, and was notable for the way it valued collaboration with a civilian population and de-emphasized the use of brute military power.
The adoption of the manual was followed quickly by President Bush sending a surge of 30,000 troops into Iraq and putting Petraeus in charge of troops in the country.
"It's a myth that all of a sudden we published the manual, then all of a sudden we got counterinsurgency," Mixon told a handful of officers from Leavenworth's counterinsurgency center.
Urban warfare studies at Fort Polk, La., for years have underscored the importance of winning the support of civilians in an occupied country through negotiation, he said. The military has long urged understanding local culture and improving people's living conditions.
When Mixon was the top commander in northern Iraq for a 15-month stretch that ended late last year, troops worked to secure the region's bountiful oil fields - although the general said exports could still be stifled by a single terrorist explosion - rebuilt schools, and repaired water and power facilities.
The effort included public relations work, from military commanders hosting regular radio call-in shows to arranging the telecasts of widows of suicide bombing victims receiving suitcases full of Iraqi currency in compensation.
"We're not going to win by killing everybody," the general said. "You've got to kill the right people - the leaders, the bomb makers and the people who just don't want to give up the fight.
"But you can't kill everybody. You have to win them over."
January 20, 2008
Pg. 12
By Scott Canon, The Kansas City Star
LEAVENWORTH -- Iraqis could be chiefly in control of the security in the north of their country within a year, says the general recently returned from commanding forces there.
Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told officers at Fort Leavenworth last week that he expected Iraqi security forces to take the lead in day-to-day patrols in the northern provinces within 12 to 18 months if U.S. commanders continue to build up the capabilities of the Iraqis and the population's confidence in them.
The first province transferred to Iraqi security was Muthanna in July 2006, followed by Dhi Qar, An Najaf, Maysan, part of Irbil, Sulaymaniyah, Dahuk, Karbala and Basra. The general thinks Diyala, Salah ad Din, Ninawa, Al Tameen provinces and the rest of Irbil could see Iraqis assuming the lead in security in little over a year.
Mixon said gains in the north came ahead of last year's U.S. troop surge and before the rewriting of American doctrine for fighting the insurgency.
As early as November 2006, he said, his troops were setting up smaller remote bases more in touch with the lives of ordinary Iraqis and courting tribal sheikhs and provincial officials.
"I don't know what's new about counterinsurgency," Mixon said.
That runs counter to enthusiasm generated among officers by a new and much-lauded counterinsurgency manual published in 2006 under the direction of Gen. David Petraeus when he was the commander at Leavenworth. It was the first revision of U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine in decades, and was notable for the way it valued collaboration with a civilian population and de-emphasized the use of brute military power.
The adoption of the manual was followed quickly by President Bush sending a surge of 30,000 troops into Iraq and putting Petraeus in charge of troops in the country.
"It's a myth that all of a sudden we published the manual, then all of a sudden we got counterinsurgency," Mixon told a handful of officers from Leavenworth's counterinsurgency center.
Urban warfare studies at Fort Polk, La., for years have underscored the importance of winning the support of civilians in an occupied country through negotiation, he said. The military has long urged understanding local culture and improving people's living conditions.
When Mixon was the top commander in northern Iraq for a 15-month stretch that ended late last year, troops worked to secure the region's bountiful oil fields - although the general said exports could still be stifled by a single terrorist explosion - rebuilt schools, and repaired water and power facilities.
The effort included public relations work, from military commanders hosting regular radio call-in shows to arranging the telecasts of widows of suicide bombing victims receiving suitcases full of Iraqi currency in compensation.
"We're not going to win by killing everybody," the general said. "You've got to kill the right people - the leaders, the bomb makers and the people who just don't want to give up the fight.
"But you can't kill everybody. You have to win them over."