The Baghdad Marathon

[SWJED]

Dave Kilcullen's latest at the Small Wars Journal blog - The Baghdad Marathon (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/02/the-baghdad-marathon/).


[Note: While I have received official approval to offer personal comment at SWJ Blog, the following post has not been vetted or screened in any way. It represents personal opinion only, and is strictly unclassified and based solely on open source material.]

It has been a busy few weeks. Operation Fadr al-Qanoon (which the media calls the “Baghdad security plan”) is shaping up. Progress is measurable, but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s still too early to know how it will turn out.

The message for all of us, as professionals who do this for a living, is patience, patience, patience. The war has been going for nearly four years, the current strategy less than four weeks. We need to give it time...

As always we ask that you comment at the blog and then here... Many thanks,

Dave D.

[sullygoarmy]

Great read on the latest from Baghdad. Headed back that way in a week or two and look forward to getting a first hand look myself. As much as people here make Tarmiya out as a shock, in some respects, getting the insurgents out in the open is exactly what we want to do. If we see them, we can kill them. As we expand and set up more COPs in the community, these attacks, and unfortunately casualties, will increase. However, it beats trolling for IED where there is little to no chance of striking back at the insurgents. The other bonus is the increased interaction between both the Iraqi population and the US/IA forces operating in these COPs.

Not sure if you caught this article in USA Today last week but effectively validates exactly what Dave Kilcullen, and FM 3-24 are saying:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-02-14-iraqi-outposts-cover_x.htm