'They can have it'

by soccerdad

U.S. pulls back from turbulent province

A top military official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity said

"Any insurgent that ... somehow thinks that after June 28 we'll be pulling back into base camps will be disappointed," he said.

However, the military has all but stopped patrols in the Anbar province because of continued loses and an inabiltiy to make any headway against the the insurgents despite heavy military pressure.

The Anbar province makes up 40% of Iraqi landmass and is home to many intelligence and military officers under Saddam.

In the wreckage of the security situation, Neemeyer said, U.S. officials have all but given up on plans to install a democratic government in the city [Ramadi, the capital], and are hoping instead that Islamic extremists and other insurgent groups don't overrun the province in the same way that they've seized the region's most infamous town, Fallujah.

The U.S. military has poured about $18 million into reconstruction projects in Ramadi, but Neemeyer said the projects hadn't done much in the way of winning people over.

"The only way to stomp out the insurgency of the mind," he said, "would be to kill the entire population."

Residents of Ramadi say support for the insurgents has risen because of the actions of the American troops including house raids and preceived slights against local leaders. A lack of understanding of Iraqi culture has seemingly been a problem since the fall of Saddam all over Iraq. This is an important point since our stated goal was to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and thereby bring democracy to them.

Capt. John Mountford, who oversees a central command office in Ramadi for local police, national guard and U.S. military officials, said..... "We should have worked with the tribal leaders earlier," he said. "I just wonder what would have happened if we had worked a little more with the locals."

If or when this effort is lost, it will be the lack of planning by the civilian members of the Pentagon for the post war phase that will largely to be blamed. I remain unconvinced that they really cared about the Iraqi people.

UPDATE

I came across a companion paper In Anbar province, change of course rankles many U.S. soldiers

Scaling back the military and political goals in Iraq's Anbar province has hurt the morale of many U.S. soldiers stationed there, and some have begun to question openly not only their mission, but also the leaders who sent them to Iraq in the first place.