What happened to the Petraeus strategy of dispersing US forces around Baghdad in small groups for population security? This month Operations Marne Thunderbolt & Iron Harvest, both parts of Operation Phantom Phoenix, have been on multi-battalion "kill or capture" operations in Diyala and other northern provinces, involving 74,000 US & Iraqi forces. Shades of Westmoreland!
Where did all those troops come from? Did the population security operations succeed, fail, been turned over to the Iraqis, or what? Surely large search and destroy sweeps are not part of the new counterinsurgency operations.
Que pasa?

Tom Collier