Ink blot strategy comes to Baghdad

NY Times:

...

The plan is to concentrate on specific neighborhoods rather than distribute the forces throughout the city, control movement in and out of sectors of the capital and try to sweep them of insurgents and violent militias.

In effect, the scheme is a version of the “ink blot” counterinsurgency strategy of grabbing a piece of terrain, stabilizing it and gradually expanding it. Only this time the objective is not a far-flung Iraqi city or town, but the capital, the seat of the fledgling government and home to some seven million Iraqis.

The plan has risks. It will divert American military police from deploying to Anbar Province, where the insurgency continues to rage. And an increased presence of American troops on the ground in Baghdad, where insurgent attacks have soared, carries the potential of more American casualties.

But Baghdad in military parlance is the “center of gravity” for the larger effort to secure the country.

Restoring security in a capital that is tormented by sectarian strife and lawless militias is such an essential task that American commanders are willing to accept a greater degree of risk elsewhere.

...


The size of the additional forces is really not that significant in terms of the overall force the US has in Iraq. What is important is how they are used. Instaed of attempting to disperse troops through the city, they will be flooding the zone in certain areas making it impossible for the enemy to operate because the force to space ratio in those areas makes it difficult for the enemy to move without being detected. It is a program of neighborhood denial and control.

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