Counterinsurgency on the Syrian border

Christian Science Monitor:

Last fall, US Marines swept through Qaim, a cluster of towns and villages along the Euphrates River, and wrested control from foreign jihadists.

Over the years and throughout Iraq, the Americans have followed up similar successes by returning to large bases miles from the nearest major town.

That distance allowed insurgents to return and regroup.

But in this region of about 80,000 people near the Syrian border, the marines have stayed. Under the command of Lt. Col. Julian Alford, they followed up Operation Steel Curtain by spreading out over a dozen small bases inside towns and along major roads. Lt. Col. Nick Marano and his marines took over in Qaim earlier this year and are using the strategy to push into towns and villages that are seeing an American presence for the first time.

That presence has helped the Americans prevent insurgents from reestablishing a large-scale presence in the area. This spring, marines are building more new bases in the rural areas east of the major towns here.

"If you don't go looking for them, you're not going to find them," says Col. W. Blake Crowe, whose command in western Anbar Province includes Qaim. He says that Qaim is "the model for where they want us to go."

The assumption in most of Iraq is that keeping American forces in population centers fuels the insurgency and increases American casualties. In Qaim, the result has been the opposite.

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I never bought into the US forces being a terror magnet BS. In fact the opposite is the case. The terrorist have faired so poorly in combat with US forces that they avoid contact whenever possible. Most don't seem that eager to collect their 72 white raisins/virgins.

There is much more in this story.