Cap I just had a thought what if what is going on out on the border near al Qaim is the holding action(the blocking force) and the axis centers on Ramadi....Ramadi is the real target.
I can't say. I'm not enough of a strategist to tell. However, Ramadi is a lot further from Qaim than Hadithah which is officially being acknowledged as the largest this year in Anbar, see MNF release posted in comment #3 here:
http://billroggio.com/archives/2005/10/big_battle_in_r.php
What I might surmise is that Qaim is an attempt to restrict the escape route back into Syria. A real whupping in Hadithah would send some toward Qaim, but that would be sort of frying pan to fire . . .