Of course foreign AQ fighters can slip across the border, but the reality is there is little need to do so when there are plenty of areas in Iraq that are wide open for them to relocate. The homegrown insurgents, beyond the well to do FRL, don't necessarily have that option, as it is not a pleasant experience for the average Iraqi insurgent to relocate to Jordan, Syria, or Iran.

One example was the most recent battle of Falluja, where AQI left several fighters in the city, and the rest withdrew to fight elsewhere in Iraq. That means we need to clear, hold, and build, and not resort to the Vietnam strategy of taking hills just because the enemy is there and then giving them back to him.