US prepares to hand over Anbar Province

NCT:

The U.S. military is preparing to hand over primary responsibility for security in the Anbar province in mid-June.

The transfer is scheduled to take place in the city of Habbaniyah, Marine Corps commanders said Wednesday.

The upcoming transition in the sprawling province once believed lost to the insurgency is considered one of the larger success stories of the Iraq war.

...

The ceremony will not mean that the Marine Corps will be leaving Anbar anytime soon, Helland warned.

The Marines will stay here, likely on fewer bases and in fewer numbers, to support the Iraqi army and security forces, said Helland, who also commands Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Helland told the commanders that Army Gen. David Petraeus does not want to see the success gained on what he called the "left flank" of the Iraq war squandered.

"He has to be able to rely on Anbar remaining stable," Helland told about 40 Marine commanders attending the briefing. "So for now it's going to be steady the course."

Even so, the transfer of security responsibility goes beyond the symbolic, the military says. It places the onus for maintaining the gains over the last year squarely on the Iraqi army and security forces.

...
This is good news. It also points out the success of the surge strategy in Anbar. If the Democrat policy had been put in place we would be handing it over to al Qaeda. That is a huge difference for the Iraqis and for the US. It is another reason why Democrats should not be elected. Their desperation for defeat is not in the US interest.

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