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The Surge in Action
Jeff Emanuel, a special operations veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and director of RedState.com is currently embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq. He is witnessing “The Surge in Action.”
He sees the coalition forces not only routing Al Qaeda but winning the hearts and minds through things like free health clinics:
EARNING THE RESPECT, GRATITUDE, and cooperation of the Iraqi populace is time-consuming and difficult. But without the surge in U.S. forces this spring, or the new strategy put in place by Gen. Petraeus, the people of this region–as well as the other regions affected by the arrival and operations of the surge brigades—would be facing a far less secure environment, and would still be without the basic medical care and services provided by the Coalition.
“People ask me, ‘Is the surge working?’,” Colonel Wayne Grigsby, 3rd Brigade commander, said to me. “And I say, ‘How can it not be?’ We’re in these areas that no soldiers have been for months and years, we’ve got al Qaeda , JAM , and JAI discombobulated, and we’re showing the people there–people who might not have seen an American soldier in years–a sustained presence, catching bad guys, building checkpoints, and making life safer for them.”
“Again, I say, ‘How can it not be working?’”