Military Matters: Iraq base skedaddle

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- I recently wrote about a contradiction in U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, where the United States is simultaneously attempting to draw the rural population away from the Taliban and eradicating opium poppy crops, which drives farmers toward the Taliban.

An article in the May 14 Cleveland Plain Dealer, 'U.S. shift in fighting insurgency stirs debate,' points to a different kind of contradiction in Iraq, a contradiction between the requirements of the strategic and tactical levels of war.

The article, by reporters Solomon Moore and Peter Spiegel, notes that in Anbar Province, the Marines are adopting the 'ink blot' approach to counter-insurgency, which is the only tactic that has a chance of working:

'In the region surrounding Al Qaim, a northwestern Iraqi town near the Syrian border, Marines are fanning out from their main base and moving into villages...

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