Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
January 18, 2008
Pg. 6
Military shifts tactics in fight to secure Iraq
By Charles Levinson, USA Today
NEAR ARAB JABOUR, Iraq-- On his first tour of duty two years ago, Vincent Mancuso was unable to subdue these sprawling farmlands south of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein loyalists and al-Qaeda militants led a feared insurgency.
He says he has come back to fight a different-- and more effective-- kind of war.
"Before, we were hitting and leaving," says the gruff, barrel-chested Mancuso, pushing out toward the front line of a massive U.S. offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq that began here in late December.
"Back then, we'd move in, hit some houses, seize some weapons, arrest some guys and then leave. And as soon as we left, the bad guys just moved back in," he recalls of his last tour.
Mancuso's service then and now puts him in a good position to judge the counterinsurgency doctrine implemented by Gen. David Petraeus, the overall U.S. commander in Iraq.
The strategy takes advantage of a greater number of U.S. troops in Iraq to "clear, hold and build" on captured territory, rather than grabbing a few bad guys and heading home.
"Now we're hitting it and keeping it, which is how the war should be fought," Mancuso says.
In recent months, violence nationwide has plummeted to levels not seen since the summer of 2005, according to data in a U.S. military report issued in December.
The U.S. military has turned its focus to areas where al-Qaeda in Iraq has refused to retreat, such as Diyala province or a region south of Baghdad, where Mancuso's unit operates. The area, roughly the size of West Virginia, is home to farms owned by former supporters of Saddam Hussein and other Sunni Arabs-- fertile ground for al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups to take shelter.
"This is the tip of the spear" of the new U.S. offensive, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces in the area.
Mud-walled livestock sheds and single-story cement block homes dot the bucolic sprawl. From the rooftop post of one abandoned Iraqi farmhouse, soldiers look out onto palm trees and eucalyptus groves. A patchwork of canals crisscross fields for as far as the eye can see.
The U.S. military briefly turned the territory over to Iraqis in early 2006, but things spiraled further out of control. Iraqi Lt. Naseer Ibrahim was among the handful of Iraqi soldiers left to fend for themselves.
"It was crazy," he says with a laugh. He and his men retreated as al-Qaeda in Iraq cemented its hold on the territory. They hunkered down in their bases, afraid to venture out, leaving the sprawling countryside a lawless vacuum. Extremists seized on the absence of authority to turn these fields into a sanctuary where they assembled car bombs to be funneled into Baghdad.
When the 3rd Infantry Division arrived here last spring there was one company of American soldiers, or roughly 100 troops, responsible for the whole area.
Last weekend, U.S. planes dropped more than 40,000 pounds of bombs in 10 minutes, targeting buried improvised explosive devices, weapons caches and suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq safe houses.
The boom-thud-boom of outgoing artillery is a reminder that these soldiers are still at battle. Nearby, a pair of Kiowa attack helicopters dart through the air, the buzzing of their engines punctuated by rockets exploding nearby in an irrigation canal where insurgents may be taking shelter.
Spc. John Berberick, a returning infantryman, was here from January 2005 to January 2006, among the darkest months of the post-invasion period, when sectarian fighting consumed the country.
"Last time, we did mostly mounted patrols. We didn't get out of the vehicles much," recalls Berberick, 33, from Bayonne, N.J. "We're doing a lot more walking around this time, talking to people, getting to know the population. And we seem to be getting a lot more done."
At the front of the U.S. advance, a new patrol base is under construction. U.S. officers such as Capt. Christopher O'Brien hope the dozen cargo containers that have been flown in by Chinook helicopters to supply the base have sent a clear message to local residents and insurgents that, unlike in the past, this time the U.S. military is sticking around.
Each incremental gain is accompanied by days of building bases, recruiting residents to assist with security and attempting to rev up the economy-- steps Lynch hopes will make the gains stick.
"It's a march of clearing towns, making sure it's secure, establishing local citizens groups, bringing in the Iraqi army, jump-starting the economy with micro-grants and trying to get local government up and running," says Lt. Col. Mark Solomon, 40, from Burlington, Mass. "Only then do the soldiers look forward to the next town on the map."
O'Brien, 26, from Herndon, Va., and the four platoons he commands have advanced 11/2 miles in two weeks.
"I can jump forward quickly and take a lot of ground, but if we just clear the bad guys and don't make sure it stays secure, we'd have done it all for nothing because they'd just come back in again," O'Brien says.
January 18, 2008
Pg. 6
Military shifts tactics in fight to secure Iraq
By Charles Levinson, USA Today
NEAR ARAB JABOUR, Iraq-- On his first tour of duty two years ago, Vincent Mancuso was unable to subdue these sprawling farmlands south of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein loyalists and al-Qaeda militants led a feared insurgency.
He says he has come back to fight a different-- and more effective-- kind of war.
"Before, we were hitting and leaving," says the gruff, barrel-chested Mancuso, pushing out toward the front line of a massive U.S. offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq that began here in late December.
"Back then, we'd move in, hit some houses, seize some weapons, arrest some guys and then leave. And as soon as we left, the bad guys just moved back in," he recalls of his last tour.
Mancuso's service then and now puts him in a good position to judge the counterinsurgency doctrine implemented by Gen. David Petraeus, the overall U.S. commander in Iraq.
The strategy takes advantage of a greater number of U.S. troops in Iraq to "clear, hold and build" on captured territory, rather than grabbing a few bad guys and heading home.
"Now we're hitting it and keeping it, which is how the war should be fought," Mancuso says.
In recent months, violence nationwide has plummeted to levels not seen since the summer of 2005, according to data in a U.S. military report issued in December.
The U.S. military has turned its focus to areas where al-Qaeda in Iraq has refused to retreat, such as Diyala province or a region south of Baghdad, where Mancuso's unit operates. The area, roughly the size of West Virginia, is home to farms owned by former supporters of Saddam Hussein and other Sunni Arabs-- fertile ground for al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups to take shelter.
"This is the tip of the spear" of the new U.S. offensive, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces in the area.
Mud-walled livestock sheds and single-story cement block homes dot the bucolic sprawl. From the rooftop post of one abandoned Iraqi farmhouse, soldiers look out onto palm trees and eucalyptus groves. A patchwork of canals crisscross fields for as far as the eye can see.
The U.S. military briefly turned the territory over to Iraqis in early 2006, but things spiraled further out of control. Iraqi Lt. Naseer Ibrahim was among the handful of Iraqi soldiers left to fend for themselves.
"It was crazy," he says with a laugh. He and his men retreated as al-Qaeda in Iraq cemented its hold on the territory. They hunkered down in their bases, afraid to venture out, leaving the sprawling countryside a lawless vacuum. Extremists seized on the absence of authority to turn these fields into a sanctuary where they assembled car bombs to be funneled into Baghdad.
When the 3rd Infantry Division arrived here last spring there was one company of American soldiers, or roughly 100 troops, responsible for the whole area.
Last weekend, U.S. planes dropped more than 40,000 pounds of bombs in 10 minutes, targeting buried improvised explosive devices, weapons caches and suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq safe houses.
The boom-thud-boom of outgoing artillery is a reminder that these soldiers are still at battle. Nearby, a pair of Kiowa attack helicopters dart through the air, the buzzing of their engines punctuated by rockets exploding nearby in an irrigation canal where insurgents may be taking shelter.
Spc. John Berberick, a returning infantryman, was here from January 2005 to January 2006, among the darkest months of the post-invasion period, when sectarian fighting consumed the country.
"Last time, we did mostly mounted patrols. We didn't get out of the vehicles much," recalls Berberick, 33, from Bayonne, N.J. "We're doing a lot more walking around this time, talking to people, getting to know the population. And we seem to be getting a lot more done."
At the front of the U.S. advance, a new patrol base is under construction. U.S. officers such as Capt. Christopher O'Brien hope the dozen cargo containers that have been flown in by Chinook helicopters to supply the base have sent a clear message to local residents and insurgents that, unlike in the past, this time the U.S. military is sticking around.
Each incremental gain is accompanied by days of building bases, recruiting residents to assist with security and attempting to rev up the economy-- steps Lynch hopes will make the gains stick.
"It's a march of clearing towns, making sure it's secure, establishing local citizens groups, bringing in the Iraqi army, jump-starting the economy with micro-grants and trying to get local government up and running," says Lt. Col. Mark Solomon, 40, from Burlington, Mass. "Only then do the soldiers look forward to the next town on the map."
O'Brien, 26, from Herndon, Va., and the four platoons he commands have advanced 11/2 miles in two weeks.
"I can jump forward quickly and take a lot of ground, but if we just clear the bad guys and don't make sure it stays secure, we'd have done it all for nothing because they'd just come back in again," O'Brien says.