Word: iraqi
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Odierno concedes that his thinking has evolved. "I'd be wrong if I said I didn't learn," he says. He studied up on tribal relationships, Iraqi politics and microeconomics. But he rejects as "grossly exaggerated" the idea that he had some revelation and suddenly embraced counterinsurgency doctrine. He points out that some of the tactics he employed in 2003 have made a comeback. As commander of the 4th Infantry Division, despite orders to pull back, he kept small outposts in neighborhoods among the residents, ensuring better surveillance and quick response to insurgent attacks, which helped him shut down...
...implementing the surge, Odierno pushed five new brigades into Baghdad's neighborhoods and gave them surveillance equipment like aerial drones, ground sensors and blimps with closed-circuit cameras, allowing each small outpost to watch over many city blocks. He also worked with the Iraqi forces to bring National Police and Iraqi army soldiers into Baghdad from all over the country. Displaying political dexterity, he persuaded a nervous Iraqi government to sign on to the Sons of Iraq program, which turned thousands of insurgents into neighborhood-watch groups. If Petraeus gets credit for ushering in the surge, it was Odierno...
...Qaeda in Iraq. Iran continues to wage a hot and cold war for influence over the future of Iraq. Militant groups are trying to regain footholds around Baghdad. And Odierno's political skills have been put to the test in negotiations over a status-of-forces agreement with the Iraqi government, which the Iraqi Cabinet endorsed on Nov. 16. Under the terms of the agreement, all U.S. forces will leave Iraq by the end of 2011. (During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama called for pulling out all combat brigades...
...agreement is in part due to the success that Army General David Petraeus won with his surge and the retooled deployment strategy he spent the last 18 months implementing across Iraq. Violence in the nearly six-year war has ebbed to the point where Iraqi nationalism and a desire to exercise sovereignty have finally trumped Iraqi concerns over bloodshed and sectarian strife...
...election of Barack Obama was one of the factors that pushed the SOFA process along, Pentagon officials say. The President-elect had proposed on the campaign trail to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, a position closer to the Iraqi government's than to that taken by the Bush Administration. The intra-Iraqi squabbling over the pact, partly fueled by Iran's concerns, evaporated following Obama's election two weeks ago. "I am hopeful that conditions will continue to improve, so we can continue" to withdraw U.S. troops, Mullen said. But if ordered...