Surge having significant impact

MNFI:

Ongoing anti-insurgent operations conducted in and around Baghdad and to the south of Iraq’s capital city are achieving continued success, a senior U.S. military officer said Friday during a teleconference with retired military analysts.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rich Lynch, commander of Multi-National Division-Center and U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said he is optimistic that the surge will reduce violence in Baghdad while seriously disrupting insurgent operations in Iraq.

“Eventually, I believe you’ll see (an) improved security situation inside of Baghdad” due to the surge operations, he said. “But, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Seeing on TV that the surge has minimal impact on the insurgents, “causes me great confusion,” he noted.

In reality, U.S. and Iraqi security forces participating in Operation Marne Torch are busily knocking out insurgent sanctuaries located within his battle space, Lynch said, which includes parts of eastern and southern Baghdad, as well as Najaf, Karbala, Babil and Wasit provinces.

“We’ve had significant impact on the enemy with the surge forces,” Lynch asserted. “I contend that they are indeed being successful.” Yet, he cautioned it will take some time to gauge the overall effectiveness of the surge operations.

...

Many surge-related operations designed to eliminate enemy activity in Baghdad and its environs are being conducted within Multi-National Division-Center’s battle space, Lynch said. Since it was launched nearly a month ago, Operation Marne Torch has killed or captured 300 insurgents and netted 60 large enemy weapons caches, the general reported.

When he surveyed his area of operations in March before all the surge troops had arrived, Lynch observed there were four enemy sanctuaries that needed to be taken out.

Those sanctuaries were used by Sunni and Shiite insurgents, as well as al Qaeda in Iraq operatives, because “there weren’t any security forces” in the area, Lynch explained.

“So, we’ve got major operations across my battle space to disrupt those four sanctuaries,” Lynch said. One ongoing operation is focused on knocking out Sunni-insurgent strongholds in the Tigris River valley region, including the Arab Jabour area south of Baghdad.

Lynch said another offensive, Marne Avalanche, has just commenced against Sunni and Shiite insurgents operating in the Euphrates River valley.

...

So who do you think is more knowledgeable about the success of the surge, the General who is in charge of a significant operation or some senators in Washington listening to other senators? Who do you think is really more concerned for the welfare of his troops and the people in his area?