Operation Quick Strike: Neither Quick, Nor just a Strike [GREAT breakdown of current operations]

The Adventures of Chester ^ | 8-08-05 | Chester

[FreedomNeocon]

Operation Quick Strike: Neither Quick, Nor just a Strike

Things are about to change dramatically in Anbar province.

As both Wretchard (here, here, and here) and Bill Roggio have noted, Operation Quick Strike has begun.

The question is, why now? An LA Times story (8 U.S. Troops Killed in Battle for Border) on the death of 6 Marine snipers (aside: this is extremely unusual and bears close examination) contained a tantalizing detail of the nature of Quick Strike:

The deaths of the Americans, though, highlight the intensity of the fighting in the area after a recent order by Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in the country, to control Iraq's western border by November. This is a rather important detail that is buried deep within the story.

Wretchard points to another LA Times story which has a bit more detail (Base Set Up to Curb Rebels):

American troops have established the first long-term military base along a major smuggling route near the Syrian border in a new effort to block potential suicide bombers from reaching targets in Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities.

A force of 1,800 U.S. troops, responding to continuing concerns that foreign fighters are crossing the Syrian border into Iraq, recently began an operation that includes setting up the base, three miles from the crossroads town of Rawah.

This is a major change in the force structure out on the border. Rawah is not quite on the border, but does occupy a rather important crossing point for the Euphrates. But more importantly, it will be the first US base in Anbar that is north of the Euphrates. In any case, 1800 new troops represents about a third more personnel than were in the Marine regiment responsible for this area. This is a significant increase. More: U.S. military officials in Iraq say the operation near Rawah is their top priority. In the last two weeks, the military has been building structures at the new base and American troops have begun arriving at the facility. The base as been set up far enough from the town so that insurgents seeking to launch mortar and rocket attacks would have to do so from the open desert, where they are more likely to be seen.

A mission statement viewed by a Los Angeles Times reporter states the military's goal is to disrupt Zarqawi's organization, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and establish Iraqi government control of the border, driving a wedge between the militants and the Iraqi population and eliminating a "safe haven" for insurgents.

The battle plan calls for U.S. troops to launch a series of raids, secure the area and bring in Iraqi security forces. Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi referred briefly to the operation after meeting Thursday with President Jalal Talabani.

"Our forces will start from the Syrian border … till we reach Ramadi, then to Fallouja," he said. "We have taken precise measures on the ground and acquired the president's approval to start the operation."

As in Fallouja, in western Iraq, where U.S. forces fought in November to oust insurgents, U.S. military officials have asked the Iraqi government to issue emergency laws that could include a curfew and a travel ban.

The operation, the largest in western Iraq since May when 100 alleged foreign fighters were killed in Operation Matador, is key to fulfilling an order from Casey: that Iraq's borders be secured by November.

This operation is meant to sever the operational rear of the insurgency. The Iraqi government will gain control of the border area over the next 60 days and its influence will begin to slowly creep eastward. Terrorists will have to choose -- to die in battle, to flee to Syria, or to displace further and further east as the Coalition steamrolls behind them. This will not be a single decisive battle, like Fallujah, but will instead be a campaign of decreasingly lethal skirmishes. US Marines and some Army troops will form a shock force, but will leave the after-battle cleanup and establishment of law and order to Iraqi battalions and brigades -- a joint operation that will highlight the competencies of the US and the Iraqis both. In the process, the Iraqi units will gain valuable combat experience. There's even more good news: The 2nd Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team is leading the operation and is the first to take up a permanent presence in the area. Officials say it has been difficult, if not impossible, for U.S.-led forces to control the region without such a commitment.

"It's a huge, desolate place and if somebody wanted to hide out it would be a good place to hide out," Marine Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of coalition forces in western Iraq, said in an interview in Fallouja.

As the operation unfolds, Marines would continue to hold the region south of the Euphrates, while the Stryker Brigade, which has been based in Mosul, pushes south, putting insurgents in a "vice," a senior U.S. military strategist said.

That's right, you read it correctly, somehow, we've managed to free up an entire Stryker brigade and send it south to Anbar. This is a regimental-sized unit, but nearly completely mobile (readers, correct my mistakes here, please). Given the terrain, the Stryker brigade will own the area north of the Euphrates. General Casey has certainly decided to make Quick Strike his main play for the autumn.

Why has this decision been taken?

The factors are three:

1. The Iraqi political timetable -- with more elections planned for December, pacifying now-lawless areas of the Sunni Triangle and Anbar province will allow even more Sunnis to participate in the elections. The Iraqi government will gain a great deal of legitimacy if it is able to dramatically increase Sunni participation and a key factor will be a security environment stable enough for voting to take place. The US is also probably looking to another successful election to provide further momentum toward democracy in the rest of the region. The momentum of the first election sort of petered out when it took the Iraqis so long to form a government . . .

2. The competence of Iraqi forces -- there is much to be made of the idea that the nature of the operational campaign in Anbar province up until this point (see Bill Roggio's excellent summary) can be characterized as a delaying action. The US intended to keep the insurgents off-balance, to destroy their sanctuaries when they coalesced (Fallujah) and to seek to impose order -- all the while knowing that victory would only come with large numbers of competent Iraqi forces. Another possibility is that competent Iraqi forces have been able to take responsibility for security in other parts of the country, freeing up the US to shuffle units into Anbar. A final possibility is that General Casey has judged Sunni participation in the election to be so important that he has chosen to be weak elsewhere. The truth may be a combination of all of these possibilities. In any case, everything up until Quick Strike constituted an entirely different campaign than the one that begins with Quick Strike.

3. US domestic politics: General Casey has recently been talking up the possibilities of beginning to withdraw US troops from Iraq, as have other generals, civilians in the Pentagon, and members of the Administration too. Is he being pressured from above to make quick results? How much is domestic politics concerning the President now, who certainly does not want to see the GOP lose seats in the 2006 elections -- the campaigns for which are just beginning to creep into the public's consciousness, and the news media as well, but which will really get going in early spring of next year.

From the three factors above, we have the new Campaign for Western Anbar. Let us hope that those in charge, and our fellow voters as well remember Shakespeare's evil genius Iago: "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the post. I do hope folks bookmark the site who do not alreay visit it, and also find references to the Fourth Rail, Winds of Change, Michael Yon, etc.. Key sites to find out what is happening in Iraq, from a military viewpoint.