What the military got wrong in Iraq.

I think that America has gotten many things wrong in Iraq. Now, they are getting a bit better now, but many things happening now could have started years ago. Example: Patrolling with Iraqi police and Army from forward operating bases. Now, casualties are higher, but so is the effectiveness. We should have done this from the beginning. A shorter war means less casualties in the long term. It took a random Marine commander trying this out in Anbar last year for the military to start this. Guess what? even CNN says Anbar has gotten a lot better. Allying with secular tribal leaders is another thing we could have done earlier. Those two strategies made Anbar much safer.

Secondly, they didn't give the Iraqis enough heavy equipment. They claim artillery and strike aircraft aren't useful against an insurgency, so don't get the Iraqis any, but then use them both to destroy enemy strongholds. The fighting in Lebanon has proven that artillery works on terrorists, so the Iraqis might need them. Now, a cynic might say this is because they fear those weapons being used against us. Except we let the Iraqi army have tanks. Heck, were sending them a couple hundred now. Artillery would be useful to the Iraqis, as would attack helicopters and jets. Without those, how the heck are they going to fight their enemies, and how will we be able to leave? Without firepower nearly as good as ours, they can't survive, its that simple. Now, the emergency spending bill gives them tanks and other armored vehicles, and thats good, but theirs no news about a better Air Force or any kind of artillery. After all that fuss in Congress, the Iraqis still don't have enough firepower for us to leave, much less for them to be effective.