by Rory Walkinshaw

Created on: February 24, 2009   Last Updated: March 09, 2009

Will the insurgency in Iraq ever end? If the war is handled right, ABSOLUTELY! Insurgencies, being the primary form of armed conflict in the 21st century, are simply another form of warfare and, when handled correctly, can be defeated. In Iraq, the "surge" advocated by General Petraeus and the accompanying aggressive offensives in 2007-2008 have driven Al-Qaeda, sectarian violence, and terrorist networks from its primary strongholds. Their power, once seemingly invincible and unstoppable, is now manageable and insurgent elements in the country have been losing ground for quite some time now. If the United States and Iraq in general, and the US Army in particular, are serious about crushing the insurgency in that Middle Eastern country, pressure must be consistently applied to terrorists, combined with several other elements required to stabilize the country and suck support from destabilizing elements.

In late November 2006, Iraq was a country tearing itself apart. Sectarian attacks were rampant and Coalition forces were under heavy attack. According to the Institute for the Study of War, "Iraq was in flames. Insurgents and death squads were killing 3,000 civilians a month. Coalition forces were sustaining more than 1,200 attacks per week. Operation Together Forward II, the 2006 campaign to clear Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods and hold them with Iraqi Security Forces, had been suspended because violence elsewhere in the capital was rising steeply. AlQaedain Iraq (AQI) owned safe havens within and around Baghdad, throughoutAnbar, and inDiyala,Salah-ad-Din, andNinewaprovinces. The Iraqi government was completely paralyzed. Iraq was in flames. Insurgents and death squads were killing 3,000 civilians a month. Coalition forces were sustaining more than 1,200 attacks per week. Operation Together Forward II, the 2006 campaign to clear Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods and hold them with Iraqi Security Forces, had been suspended because violence elsewhere in the capital was rising steeply. AlQaedain Iraq (AQI) owned safe havens within and around Baghdad, throughoutAnbar, and in Diyala, Salah-ad-Din, and Ninewa provinces. The Iraqi government was completely paralyzed".

It seemed, to many, the Iraq had indeed become another Vietnam for the US or. The situation, in some ways, was eerily reminiscent of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, where Red Army soldiers, numbering in the tens of thousands and boasting superior firepower, were unable to defeat the nation-wide

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