This paragraph is in the same story:
As I point out in my blog:But current and former military leaders said it was misleading to attribute the push solely to politics. Central Command officers, including Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the Centcom commander, have argued that the large presence fosters a "dependency syndrome" within the Iraqi military, which continues to rely on Americans to do the heavy lifting.
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This is the nut of the debate over troop levels and explains for better than Cobra II why Abizaid went with the lower troop levels. His approach will work if the Iraqis take up the slack. The approach of the Marines at Qaim is the approach that defeats insurgencies. You have to have the force to space ratio sufficient to stop the enemy from being able to move. The enemy is defeated when he cannot easily move from a sanctuary to an area of operation. Contesting every town denies the sanctuary and cuts off routes of movement. An enemy using a raiding strategy is always most vulnerable while moving. Troops in a big base do little to stop that movement. Until the Iraqis can get out there and do the patroling the Marines and other troops have to do the job.
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