Dig Two Holes--Take the Dirt From the First...

The TalAfar two-step:

Nine months ago the American military laid siege to this city in northwestern Iraq and proclaimed it freed from the grip of insurgents. Last month, the Americans returned in force - to reclaim it once again.

After the battle here in September the military left behind fewer than 500 troops to patrol a region twice the size of Connecticut. With so few troops and the local police force in shambles, insurgents came back and turned Tal Afar, a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people, into a way station for the trafficking of arms and insurgent fighters from nearby Syria - and a ghost town of terrorized residents afraid to open their stores, walk the streets or send their children to school.

It is a cycle that has been repeated in rebellious cities throughout Iraq, and particularly those in the Sunni Arab regions west and north of Baghdad, where the insurgency's roots run deepest.

"We have a finite number of troops," said Maj. Chris Kennedy, executive officer of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in Tal Afar several weeks ago. "But if you pull out of an area and don't leave security forces in it, all you're going to do is leave the door open for them to come back. This is what our lack of combat power has done to us throughout the country. In the past, the problem has been we haven't been able to leave sufficient forces in towns where we've cleared the insurgents out."

While officials in Washington say the military has all the troops it needs, on-the-ground battle commanders in the most violent parts of Iraq - in cities like Ramadi, Mosul and Mahmudiya - have said privately that they need more manpower to pacify their areas and keep them that way.

So, where will the military find folks willing to play a very deadly lottery? Neither neo-cons nor their offspring seem all that eager for a piece of that sort of action. I suppose we could try to put the squeeze on the Coalition of the Willing Coalition with the Willies whatever they're calling it these days, but I doubt they'll bite for any sort of bribe considerations. And our more traditional allies show no signs of interest whatsoever--I think that has something to do with democratic values, i.e., they actually listen to their respective publics, who made it clear before Operation-It's-Duck-Season--Fire! that discretionary war is just plain wrong.

Looks like "Mission Accomplished" turned out to be a typical Dubya boast--all souffle, no substance...