A recent report in the Washington Post contains some insight into the efforts to bring about a victory in Iraq - for both the US and the Iraqis.
Since his return from Northern Iraq, Army Reserve Major and Congressional Candidate Will Breazeale has been saying "We need to let the Iraqi Army and police that we have trained take the lead in their own country, give them the the opportunity to lead themselves to Victory".
Breazeale, as a training officer living and working with the Iraqis, saw first hand how, like a kid on his first bicycle, the first solo ride may be wobbly and there may be some tumbles along the way, when urged or even forced to do so find that they really have all it takes to do the job.
Washington Post reporter Joshua Partlow wrote:
With just 2,000 American soldiers to patrol a city of 1.8 million people -- the Iraqi Sunni insurgency's most formidable urban stronghold -- the U.S. military strategy in Mosul relies to an unprecedented degree on the Iraqi security forces. U.S. military officials here say there will be nothing like the "surge" of thousands of American troops that helped ease the fighting in Baghdad and no major effort to search for insurgents block by block.
Instead, they are betting that 18,200 Iraqi soldiers and police can shoulder the load against the kaleidoscope of insurgent groups fighting in the city.
"We see the Iraqi security forces, more and more, take the lead and take the fight to the enemy," said Maj. Adam Boyd, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's intelligence officer.
"You do see a capability that we have not seen before."
In recent months, three Iraqi army battalions have returned to Mosul from deployments in Baghdad. The Interior Ministry has approved 2,000 additional police recruits for the city, and a new Iraqi operations command is coordinating the efforts of the Iraqi security forces.
Breazeale responds "This is exactly what I expect to happen as Iraqi troops and police are placed in the lead positions, allowed to do the jobs we have been training them for. We can take the training wheels off, send them on their way. The new bike might get mangled but the rider will get better."
"The odd numbered Iraqi Army Divisions (1st, 3rd, 5th etc.) are especially key to the country's success because these Divisions are comprised of a mixture of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds from all over the country. If these key divisions can succeed without our help, the country will succeed," continued Breazeale. "This HAS to be tested now like the successful test the British did in the Southern Iraqi town of Basra, before any mass redeployment is considered"
The American commanders in Mosul said their approach takes into account the lessons of previous U.S. offensives, in which soldiers flooded a violent area only to find that their targets had fled or were indistinguishable from other civilians. The Americans are relying on the Iraqi army to develop intelligence that will lead to specific raids to capture individual insurgents.
"You can't just bring in the whole United States Army and go room to room of the entire city and then leave," said Maj. Thomas Feltey, the executive officer of a U.S. squadron in Mosul. "The bad guys will wait. We don't know who they are."
"We could go into a room full of people suspected of being insurgents and we had no way to tell who was and who wasn't, but the Iraqi's could look them over and pick out the bad apples," said Breazeale. "They know their own people much better than we ever can."
According to Breazeale, the way to win in Iraq and allow the bulk of our forces to return home is to train the Iraqis, assist them while they train and then send them out to defend and protect their own country.
HT - Michael Yon
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