U.S. Troops Back on the Point

July 31, 2006 — -- The U.S. strategy of putting Iraqis in charge of their own security suffered a stunning reversal last week when President Bush announced that more U.S. troops would be sent back to Baghdad.

"Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible," Bush said during a visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

For months, U.S. military spokesmen had released evermore upbeat assessments of the "Iraqification" of the security forces, which was meant to both reduce U.S. casualties and emphasize that Iraqi forces were being trained to take over securing their own country.

In Baghdad today, apart from the heavily U.S.-patrolled airport road, it is rare to see American units on the city's streets. But in their absence has come increasing violence and mayhem.

It took the commander in chief to finally admit what was becoming increasingly clear on the ground: The strategy of Iraqification has backfired in Baghdad because the largely Shiite security forces are widely seen to have been infiltrated by death squads and militia members who have been targeting Sunnis, making the sectarian conflict worse, not better.

The military has conceded that violence in Baghdad has not dropped as it was expected to but said that in other parts of the country Iraqi police and troops have done a good job of maintaining security.

Some 3,700 U.S. troops will be sent back into Baghdad in the coming weeks in a concerted attempt to reassert control over a city that has rapidly slided toward all-out sectarian civil war. The troops will mount joint patrols with Iraqi police and military units, sending out rapid-reaction strike forces to potential flash points around the city and gathering intelligence to target ringleaders who've provoked much of the violence.

U.S. military officials are reluctant to give specific operational plans in advance, but it is becoming clear that there will be at least three main tasks for the incoming troops.

First, some of the Americans will "embed" with Iraqi units --