US troops with captured enemy in "Steel Curtain" border sweep.

Having just written the previous post listing prerequisites to successfully implementing a "clear and hold" strategy in Iraq I flipped over to AOL's main news page and happened upon this article http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051102151109990004 describing an large and ambitious military operation dubbed "Steel Curtain":

"Operation Steel Curtain marks the first large-scale employment of multiple battalion-sized units of Iraqi army forces in combined operations with coalition forces in the last year," the military said.

The operation is designed to engage Al Qaida backed insurgent units along the Syrian border and interdict supplies, exactly the kind of thing I said needed to happen in order to successfully implement a "clear and hold" strategy. 

According to Aljazeera the operation is focused on the town of al Qaim in far western Iraq hard by the Syrian border.  This is a reasonable and correct target for coalition forces.  Assuming coalition continue with this and similar operations, we may have a good chance of winning in Iraq after all.

According the David Ignatius on the oped page of the November 4, 2005, Washington Post, American Iraq strategists  have latched onto a ...   more »