In Qaim, Marine tactic bears fruit

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NEW UBAYDI, Iraq

The political debate over Iraq is focused increasingly on when and how to get American forces out of the country and back to the United States. But on Iraq's border with Syria, U.S. Marines have reopened the military debate over how they can defeat the insurgency.

In the fall, the Marines swept through Qaim, a cluster of towns and villages along the Euphrates River, and wrested control from insurgent groups dominated by foreign jihadists.

Over the years and throughout Iraq, the Americans have followed up similar tactical successes by returning to large bases miles from the nearest major town. That distance from the towns and their people allowed insurgents to return and regroup.

In Qaim, Marines under Lt. Col. Julian D. Alford consolidated their position by spreading out, instead, to a dozen small bases inside towns and along major roads. The Marines' constant presence among the civilian population has helped the Americans keep insurgents from re-establishing a large-scale presence in the area.

"You can't give these guys sanctuary, and that's what the big battalion [base] does," said Col. Alford's successor, Lt. Col. Nick Marano. "Wherever you're not, that's where they are."

The assumption in most of Iraq is that a constant U.S. presence in Iraqi population centers fuels the insurgency and increases American casualties, but at Qaim, the result has been the opposite.

A 'model' for troops

Lt. Jon McClellan, who was sent to the area before the battle positions were established and returned this year, described a striking difference.

"You walked out in town, you'd get an IED or shot at or something," he said of his Iraq deployment. "Now you can go have tea on Market Street."