|
Editor's Note: Richard S. Lowry, author of the award-winning history of the Iraq invasion Marines in the Garden of Eden, returns this week to provide his insights into Operation Marne Torch. If you missed, it, you can read the first part of this series on the Baghdad Security Plan here. Last Spring, as General Petraeus was moving Surge forces into Baghdad it became clear that Anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF) were fleeing into the belts around Baghdad. He dubbed these fleeing combatants "squirters." Many squirted south. The squirters needed to be dealt with.
Also, with the arrival of eight new combat brigades, Major General Joseph Fil Jr. and the Multi-National Division-Baghdad command element would be stressed beyond their capability to remain effective. An additional division-level command element would have to be brought into the area of operations. Since all of Ft Stewart's brigades were either currently in, or on their way to Iraq; the 3rd Infantry Division's command element set up shop south of Baghdad in the first week of April. Major General Rich Lynch, 3rd ID's commanding general, assumed the reins of the newly-created Multi-National Division-Center - MND-C.
read more
MND-C became responsible for the southern belts around Arab Jabour, Salman Pak and in northern Babil Province. As Task Force Marne forces started moving into the area, tragedy struck. In the middle of May, an American outpost was overrun. Several soldiers were killed and three were abducted. This tragic event shifted America's focus to the southern belts of Baghdad. Military assets were redeployed and 4,000 American soldiers joined in the search for their missing brothers. All the while, American troops continued to arrive in-theater at a rate of one combat brigade a month.
By mid-June, one of the three missing soldiers' bodies had been found and enemy propagandists had claimed that the other two soldiers' bodies had been buried where they would never be found. Also, by mid June, all of Petraeus' surge brigades were in place. No time was wasted. On 15 June, Operation Phantom Thunder commenced. It is the largest military operation since the 2003 invasion. American forces went on the offensive all over Iraq.
The MND-C initiated Operation Marne Torch as part of Phantom Thunder. General Lynch and Task Force Marne began a concerted effort to deny the enemy freedom of movement south of Baghdad, primarily along the Tigris River. Lynch's troops began interdicting river smugglers, sinking seventeen barges in the first week. Bridges used by the enemy were felled or blocked and the entire division initiated aggressive patrolling and air and ground assaults throughout the countryside. Insurgents have been captured and killed. Weapons and explosives have been confiscated or destroyed. Operation Commando Eagle, a brigade-sized sweep is refocusing on the area where the two missing soldiers were last seen, west of the Tigris River. General Lynch's goal is to push combatants out of his area of operations and to interdict enemy supply routes leading to Baghdad. Recently, Lynch started a new operation; Operation Marne Husky is focusing on an enemy sanctuary in southeastern Baghdad. This operation is a key part of Multinational Corps-Iraq's overall operation, Phantom Strike and is targeting militant safe havens and weapons smugglers, in a continuing effort to choke the flow of bombs and weapons reaching the Iraqi capital.
This aviation-based, combat offensive allows Task Force Marne the ability to target areas that the enemy deems safe. The operation will disrupt insurgents who fled the towns of Salman Pak and Arab Jabour in front of earlier U.S. offensives. Marne Husky is a change for MND-C in that the unit with primary responsibility is the aviation brigade. Instead of conducting linear maneuver across the battlefield, the operation will consist of a series of sustained air assaults, coordinated from the sky, and employing numerous platforms operating in synch. Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters will deliver Soldiers to where they're needed within 30 minutes of identifying a target under constant support from Kiowa and Apache air weapons teams.
Just as in Baghdad, the situation in the Southern Belts has improved for the people. Violence has subsided and services are slowly being restored. The government is working to increase employment. Recently, a scrap metal reclamation program was started. There was a local police recruiting effort that was so successful that volunteers had to be turned away.
As General Petraeus has repeatedly said, the solution in Iraq is not completely military. His counter-insurgent war has changed soldiering in the U.S. Army. Combat leaders need to be entrepreneurs, as well. Major James Carlisle is Rick Lynch's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team Civil-Military Operations Officer. As such, Carlisle is looking for large-scale businesses that could potentially employ more than 1,000 people in the area. Carlisle recently visited an automobile assembly plant and a commercial dairy. Both businesses were investigated because they both could foster niche support businesses. Both the dairy farm and the assembly plant would require delivery of resources and end products, which could result in the establishment of additional businesses.
Carlisle said, "The more interesting of the two was the dairy farm…the farm manager claimed to have the capacity to handle 2,000 head of cattle and produce more than four tons of milk and two tons of cheese a day. We believe that to be a high estimate, but even a fraction would be an improvement on the 10 cattle they are working now." Carlisle will recommend that some funds from the Commander's Emergency Response Program should go to updating the farm's pasteurization equipment.
Task Force Marne's military success can be seen in this week's news and the fact that men like Major James Carlisle are working to spur economic development. In the news today, I heard that competing Shiite militias are fighting each other in the southern city of Karbala. Karbala is just south of MND-C's area of operations. The Baghdad "squirters" are now squirting farther south into Karbala, Diwaniyah and even Nasiriyah.
Next week, I will tell you about our successes in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. Baqubah is becoming one of the big success stories of Iraq and another area where the people are taking back their communities from a multitude of extremist factions.
Learn about Richard S. Lowry's writing. Visit www.marinesinthegardenofeden.com
 |
