Along the Syria-Iraq Border, Victory Is Fleeting in an Effort to Rout Out

[maddezmom]

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: June 26, 2005
KARABILA, Iraq, June 21 - American marines climbed atop the collapsed roof of the final house to be searched this week in an operation to clear this desert town of foreign militants and declared victory. Almost one hour later, they left.

When asked if the foreign fighters would be back, Sgt. Wayne O'Donnell of Company K, the unit that made the final push to the tip of the town, replied in a tired voice as he walked away, "Oh, definitely."

So goes the war in Iraq in this windswept swath of desert along the Syrian border, where marine commanders move their thinly stretched troops from village to village to quash insurgents, only to see them resurface a short time later. The problem is all too familiar. American troops farther north on the Syrian border had to beat back insurgents twice in nine months, after leaving only 500 troops to control thousands of square miles.

The issue of troop levels is so delicate that the commanding officer here, Col. Stephen W. Davis, refuses to allow their true numbers to be publicly released. If insurgents learned the figure, he says, it would pose a safety risk for his marines. He does acknowledge what is widely known - that most of the 300-mile border with Syria, a major entry point for foreign militants, is unguarded, and the most important crossing point, in Husayba, a town near the Euphrates River, has been closed for seven months because troops simply cannot control the flow.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/international/middleeast/26karabila.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Another fine example...

Of the level of military genius in this administration. Rumsfeld is a preening martinet, a fact that is only outstripped by the level he has attained as a moron.

May the ghosts of the dead haunt him all his days.