Winning in Anbar

W. Thomas Smith continues his embed assignment near Qaim and the Syrian border with Iraq.

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Despite the ongoing war and what those on Capitol Hill might have us believe, there is progress in Iraq: Real measureable progress in Al Anbar that must be talked about. I had intended to wait and discuss the progress in Anbar, fleshing it out in detail in one of my NRO columns when I get back to the states (and I will), but it deserves talking about now. Here's why:

Back in 2005, I wrote about an operation code-named Steel Curtain in which I said:

Insurgencies are not put down in a fortnight. But considering the successes in the recent counter-insurgency sweep in Iraq's Al Anbar Province, one fact becomes obvious to anyone with so much as a sliver of an understanding of ground combat operations: Eliminating the insurgency in Iraq is best left to those who best know how to do it.
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Many on Capitol Hill seem more concerned about scoring points with their stateside constituencies than they are the Marines and soldiers who must battle the enemy on the ground. And make no mistake, the ground along the Euphrates River valley and up along the Syrian border has been the stage of an ongoing series of running gun-battles between insurgents and coalition troops for months.

Therein lies the obvious: The troops on the ground, taking the fight to the enemy, are the ones who best know how to quash the insurgency. They are doing so systematically. The proof is in the results of their work (whether opponents of the war want to believe it or not), and the vast majority of those troops express no intention of abandoning that country with work to be done.
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Steel Curtain is a subordinate operation to the larger, ongoing Operation Hunter, which began in July when U.S. and Iraqi forces began sweeping the Euphrates River valley with the dual-goal of cutting the insurgent ratlines from Syria and establishing a permanent Iraqi military presence in the Al Qaim region.

Success has been achieved in both cutting the lines and bolstering the presence. Additionally, nearly 40 weapons caches have been discovered and destroyed in just over two weeks, and civilian residents of the region are now leaving displacement (refugee) camps and returning to their homes.
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Now, there is much more to the story of Steel Curtain — read the story — but what is important for us to understand today is that the success in this province, and what military experts say should be the model for the rest of Iraq is due in large part to the foundation built by Steel Curtain in November 2005. So it's not like we gained ground here, gave it up, and had to retake it as some might have their voting constituency believe. We've been building here, and standing on the shoulders of the Americans who have been killed and wounded since.

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He goes on to talk about the time needed to defeat insurgency operations. I think one of his important points is that the earlier operations in fact set the stage for the success they are now having in Anbar. By denying the enemy sanctuaries in Anbar, they were able to give the people the opportunity to side with us. While the new counterinsurgency operations have made a great contribution to our current success, they have been aided by the foundations put down by the Marines and Army units that operated in the province in the last four years. I look forward to more dispatches from Smith.