Posted on 08/20/2007 2:29:30 PM PDT by mdittmar
BAGHDAD - After five months, we are seeing the benefits of the surge. Our Division Headquarters, our Second Brigade Combat Team, our Third Brigade Combat Team, and our Combat Aviation Brigade were all brought to Iraq for the that purpose.
The last of the units arrived in May, and, as the summer winds down, we see the tremendous success these soldiers are contributing to securing Iraq.
Successive and successful combat operations followed our arrival and now the Iraqis are gaining confidence to take a stand on their own. They are showing that they want to remove the extremists and they are demonstrating their intolerance at having terror inflicted on them.
In June we conducted Operation Marne Torch to capture or kill insurgents. The Iraqi citizens told us where the insurgents were hiding their explosives, IEDs, and weapons - things that would have been used to launch attacks into Baghdad and other communities here.
In July we launched Operation Marne Avalanche, which allowed us to focus on an area that had become notorious for enemy activity along a major Shia-Sunni fault line. Our soldiers, in coordination with the Iraqi Security Forces and ordinary citizens, conducted deliberate operations to take out the enemy and restore peace to the neighborhoods.
Both operations, Marne Torch and Marne Avalanche, denied sanctuaries for al-Qaida and Shia extremists. The operations resulted in over 100 enemy killed, over 400 detained and over 42 high-value individuals - the worst of the worst - in custody.
There was a domino effect.
When we took out the leaders and their weapons, terrorists grew more fearful and they started to run and hide. At the same time, Iraqi security forces grew in strength, prestige and capacity.
In recent weeks, sectarian violence has decreased and we are seeing Iraqis - not just their security forces - step up to the plate to secure their own neighborhoods. This is just like what happened in western Iraq where our First Brigade Combat Team worked with Sunnis to fight al-Qaida.
When I fly over the battlefield, I see ordinary Iraqi citizens manning and running their own checkpoints and using their own weapons to make their neighborhoods secure. In one case, a 77-year-old man is manning a check point with a knife.
We will soon launch Operation Marne Husky. Our Combat Aviation Brigade will approach the enemy from the skies, going into an area where our ground forces cannot reach. Detailed planning with a ground infantry company will allow our aviators to continue to disrupt enemy actions; insurgents are learning there is nowhere to run and hide.
Marne Husky will keep our enemy on the run, capitalizing on air power and technology. As we continue to conduct operations into the fall, our Iraqi counterparts will conduct operations with us, and grow ever more confident to conduct operations on their own.
Times have changed since we arrived in March. We are no longer constructing American patrol bases. Now we build joint patrol bases, where we live and serve side by side with Iraqis so that we make them successful securing their future.
Our soldiers are doing great work. Just this week, a private first class in our Third Brigade caught one of the Division's high-value targets while clearing a room. His instincts told him to look under a bed and he caught one of our 15 most wanted.
It's the dedication and spirit of soldiers every day that keeps us going; it's their determination that keeps you safe.
Every day your neighbors, America's sons and daughters, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers, don 60 pounds of body armor in temperatures that approach 130 degrees to face down a barbaric enemy here. They do so, so that our children and our children's children can know safety and security back home.
Our soldiers are encouraged by the letters you send, which reassure them of your support during these very difficult times.
Despite the momentum we've gained from the surge, we expect the enemy to strike back, to do something to convince the world that our gains are not significant. We are going to continue the pressure into September and into the fall. We eagerly await the arrival of our Fourth Brigade Combat Team in November to join us and continue to stress the enemy. Rock of the Marne!
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch is commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, not deployed in Iraq. Capt. Allie Weiskopf Chase contributed to this column.
bfl
We know...and we are grateful in ways words cannot express.
Right! God bless our guys, getting the job done against all odds!
Meanwhile, the defeatists are scrambling to find out how to handle victory. They hate it as they do our military.
“It’s working. We’re just years too late in changing our tactics,” she said. “We can’t ever let that happen again. We can’t be fighting the last war. We have to keep preparing to fight the new war.”
I am sorry for the men and women who have suffered and died for the failure of the leadership of the military and, yes, the executive branch.
I hope we keep on a roll. Unless Generals Pelosi and Reid win out.
Ordinary Iraqis join Americans to help secure neighborhoods
don’t tell the lib/dems and the msm.....they won’t believe it and definitely won’t report it!!!!
Oh brother.
This is the opposite of liberalism - people taking matters into their own hands and solving their own problems. What is the world coming to?
Sad. No matter how much I despise her and her cohorts, right is right, even in retrospect. The title of the book “Imperial Hubris” comes to mind. I believe that President Bush was ill served by his generals and advisors. Of course, most were promoted under the Clinton administration, so what would we resonably expect. That’s why my tagline is what it is.
Neighborhood Watch.......
GOD bless the US Military and their Families!
LLS
Iraq has enough problems of its own right now. I don't think they're hiring out to seal other countries' borders right now when they've got the Iran and Syria problems to deal with.
Roger that.
Ever hear of sarcasm?
I failed to see it in your remark, perhaps it needed some help /s
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