Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Long Island Newsday
April 22, 2007
Pg. 28
U.S. strategy seems at last to be easing fears and upheaval spawned by Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida
By Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq - The U.S. military has struggled for nearly four years to secure this city, which had become a magnet for Sunni insurgents and a lawless haven for al-Qaida militants.
Now - slowly, and in halting steps - something appears to have given way. At least by its own tortured standards, Ramadi seems to be calming.
"It's much safer than it was, but is it perfectly safe? No," said Army Col. John Charlton, the commander responsible for the city 75 miles west of the capital.
"As long as al-Qaida is operating in Iraq, it's not going to be."
Ramadi offers a snapshot of the Pentagon's latest strategies to quell violence in Iraq. Neighborhoods are being walled off to keep insurgents out. Military units are moving off major bases and setting up smaller U.S.-Iraqi posts in violent areas downtown.
Alliances are being struck with influential Sunni sheiks once arrayed against the Americans, and tribal leaders have provided people for a police force.
Anbar's Sunni leaders have had little direct contact with the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, yet they control prime territory.
Anbar, stretching from Baghdad's western edge to Syria, serves as a supply route for anti-government militants who range from former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to al-Qaida fanatics.
Ramadi, a city of about 400,000, is Anbar's capital.
While the U.S. military claims progress, Ramadi remains a place where fear shadows even commonplace acts. Shoppers and school children carry white flags in desperate attempts to show neutrality.
"A lot of people are still scared in their hearts," said Mahmoud, an elderly man who gave only his first name.
"Jihadists were all around ... killing everybody. They could come back anytime."
In large part to allay those fears, Charlton said 70 percent of U.S. forces live downtown.
"We used to go on patrols and get shot at, then go back to base, eat chow and do it all again," said Army 1st Sgt. Michael Jusino, also in Ramadi two years ago.
"But we realized ... you have to go into the city and stay there." Suicide bombers still strike, the most recent one on April 6.
But troops show off graphs indicating a recent turnaround in violence. Compared to 20 to 30 daily attacks a year ago, now there often are just a few bursts of small-arms fire in a day.
Marine Brig. Gen. Charles Gurganus, commander of U.S. ground forces in Anbar, said insurgents who fled Ramadi are still in Anbar.
"They're going to places we aren't. They regroup ... but wherever they go, we're going to go with them."
April 22, 2007
Pg. 28
U.S. strategy seems at last to be easing fears and upheaval spawned by Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida
By Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq - The U.S. military has struggled for nearly four years to secure this city, which had become a magnet for Sunni insurgents and a lawless haven for al-Qaida militants.
Now - slowly, and in halting steps - something appears to have given way. At least by its own tortured standards, Ramadi seems to be calming.
"It's much safer than it was, but is it perfectly safe? No," said Army Col. John Charlton, the commander responsible for the city 75 miles west of the capital.
"As long as al-Qaida is operating in Iraq, it's not going to be."
Ramadi offers a snapshot of the Pentagon's latest strategies to quell violence in Iraq. Neighborhoods are being walled off to keep insurgents out. Military units are moving off major bases and setting up smaller U.S.-Iraqi posts in violent areas downtown.
Alliances are being struck with influential Sunni sheiks once arrayed against the Americans, and tribal leaders have provided people for a police force.
Anbar's Sunni leaders have had little direct contact with the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, yet they control prime territory.
Anbar, stretching from Baghdad's western edge to Syria, serves as a supply route for anti-government militants who range from former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to al-Qaida fanatics.
Ramadi, a city of about 400,000, is Anbar's capital.
While the U.S. military claims progress, Ramadi remains a place where fear shadows even commonplace acts. Shoppers and school children carry white flags in desperate attempts to show neutrality.
"A lot of people are still scared in their hearts," said Mahmoud, an elderly man who gave only his first name.
"Jihadists were all around ... killing everybody. They could come back anytime."
In large part to allay those fears, Charlton said 70 percent of U.S. forces live downtown.
"We used to go on patrols and get shot at, then go back to base, eat chow and do it all again," said Army 1st Sgt. Michael Jusino, also in Ramadi two years ago.
"But we realized ... you have to go into the city and stay there." Suicide bombers still strike, the most recent one on April 6.
But troops show off graphs indicating a recent turnaround in violence. Compared to 20 to 30 daily attacks a year ago, now there often are just a few bursts of small-arms fire in a day.
Marine Brig. Gen. Charles Gurganus, commander of U.S. ground forces in Anbar, said insurgents who fled Ramadi are still in Anbar.
"They're going to places we aren't. They regroup ... but wherever they go, we're going to go with them."