In testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday Frederick W. Kagan, one of the architects of the troop surge, gave a detailed explanation and assessment of its initial impact on the situation in Iraq. It's in the Weekly Standard.
The purpose of this operation--Phantom Thunder--is to disrupt terrorist and militia networks and bases outside of Baghdad that have been feeding the violence within the city. Most of the car bomb and suicide bomb networks that have been supporting the al Qaeda surge since January are based in these belt areas, and American commanders have rightly recognized that they cannot establish stable security in the capital without disrupting these networks and their bases.
But even this operation--the largest coordinated combat operation the U.S. has undertaken since the invasion in 2003--is not the decisive phase of the current strategy. It is an operation designed to set the preconditions for a successful clear-and-hold operation that will probably begin in late July or early August within Baghdad itself. That is the operation that is designed to bring security to Iraq's capital in a lasting way that will create the space for political progress that we all desire.
In the meantime Democrats continue to declare that the surge has already failed, even though, as Mr. Kagan pointed out, the decisive phases haven't begun. To abandon the surge strategy at this point would be a grave error, he said, especially since early indications are that it will succeed. Unfortunately, Democratic objectives remain what they've always been. The centerpiece of the Democratic strategy to hold on to House and Senate majorities is to get the troops out of Iraq before their success can be realized.
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