When Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki deployed his Army to pacify Basra earlier this year, naysayers insisted that the fledgling Iraqi military would be plagued by defections, cowardice, and general incompetency. Today, Basra is stable and secure. In fact, the conditions have become so favorable, a British general quipped that the city has the potential to be “another Dubai” within the decade. Unfortunately, five years of tough fighting have taught us that Stability and Support Operations (SASO) are fragile. Successes can easily succumb to just a handful of insurgents. That’s why the Iraqi Army is determined to make “next time” the “last time.”
The Iraqis are putting in place a counterterrorist structure so “when those violent extremist elements do try to come back – and some inevitably will – then they’re ready for them,” he said. “There was a slogan scrawled on a bridge in Amarah by one of these fleeing violent extremists. It said, ‘We’ll be back.’ And underneath that, an Iraqi soldier had scribbled, ‘And we’ll be waiting for you.'”
