The rational behind the Surge strategy was to bring stability and constancy to the villages and towns in Iraq. With the insurgents killed, captured, or fleeing due to the increased American military actions, the local Iraqi populace could finally concentrate on rebuilding their towns, governments, schools, and essential services as their own Iraqi Police and Army units used the American time and treasure to build and train their organizations.

While known today as “The Surge Strategy,” it was known and used prior to Bush-Petraeus as the Marines employed it last year in Ramadi. Iraq is the perfect example of the “The 3-Block War” and their concept of “Clear-hold-Build” worked well in Ramadi, in Anbar, and is now successful Baquoba, Diyala Province, and south of Baghdad.

OnPoint talked at length with LTC Kenneth Adgie, CO of 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd ID, MNF-Center. Out of Fort Stewart, Ga., and are based in the farming area south of Baghdad known as Arab Jabour. Named for the dominant Jabouri tribe, this is one of the largest Sunni-populated area in a predominantly Shia Province.

He and his men have been on the ground for slightly over 100 days.

From LTC Kenneth Adgie:
Arab Jabour is about 10 miles from the IZ, along the Tigris River Valley. It is mainly an agrarian area. The terrain is defined by thick palm groves; lots of canals, both large, wide ones and smaller ones; and then dirty, dusty roads.

The population is about 99.8 % Sunni. Of that, 95 % is one tribe, the al-Jaburi. There is no Iraqi army here, no Iraqi police here, and no governmental structure. Before the surge started, the last coalition force present was about 18 months ago. So you combine rugged terrain, Sunni, no governmental structure or law enforcement here, and what you had was a petri dish for AQI to grow. AQI here is not bad guys from Syria or Somalia. They are local people that grew up here, and from what we've learned about them, they are -- they were, thugs, the bad teenagers who stole cars and with the allure of fast money from al Qaeda, they joined AQI, and they carry out al Qaeda's bidding.

And what has happened in the last 18 months or so here is the enemy has used ultra-violence against the locals to strike fear in their heart, and then they limited resources to people -- and resources, I mean food, water and electricity -- to control behavior. And that was kind of their methodology that allowed AQI flourish here.

This is a difficult place to get into, and they carried out their bad ways and were able to build the VBIEDs or things like that to be pushed into Baghdad.

We began Marne Torch 1 on the 16th of June, and we cleared buildings methodically from north to south. We established Patrol Base Murray here. It's actually in the home of Uday and Qusay's weekend retreat home.

We continue to push south. Our mission was to block the movement of accelerants into Baghdad, and so we sat astride the two main roads that run north into Baghdad to prevent the enemy from moving people and weapons against Baghdad.

We've done pretty good. As the summer went along, we started building the confidence of the people, and they started providing a lot of information on who the bad guys were.

In early August, we started to see the first of the concerned citizens step forward. We are very fortunate to have a fellow named Brigadier General Mustafa, who is a retired one-star from the old Iraqi army, who decided enough is enough and stepped up and helped us recruit this concerned citizen organization.

We started the first day with about 87, and now seven weeks later, we're up to about 538. They are just folks from the villages who are helping us secure the area. And they're helping us to secure some critical infrastructure -- mosques, schools, water pump stations, key intersections.

The most important thing they provide is information

What we've seen since early August is a very rapid process of detaining people. The local people are writing sworn statements with the last sentence being, "I will testify in court against this man," about some of their heinous crimes. And so it's worked out exceptionally well.

And we have been able to allow the concerned citizens to take over some terrain that we operate less in. As we continue pushing south, they are able to ensure al Qaeda doesn't flow back into some areas. And they're doing a very good job. It has not been cost-free for them; they have hit IEDs also, they have been killed by AQI. They are standing up, and it's a great thing to see.

We’ve had no attacks for the last four days, and what we had prior was mostly IED contact; 120 IEDs, 30 indirect-fire, and maybe 35 small arms attacks. Their homemade explosives are deadly; nitric acid and fertilizer. So the locals telling us who is making them is very important.

For the last two weeks, we've been building a new patrol base farther south into an area that we had not yet gone to, a place called Patrol Base Hawkes, named after a Medal of Honor winner in the 30th Regiment,
 
And we are continuing to disrupt the enemy's operation. What we don't want to do is give him the opportunity to catch his breath. So we'll continue to push south. The new patrol base sits right astride a couple of his secondary LOCs, and we're able to project power from there even deeper south.

Q -- You’re in a rural farming area; how do you get out on your ops?

A -- We're using Army aviation to project combat forces south, and then we can sustain ground movement into previously uncovered areas. For a Mech battalion, we do a lot of walking.

Q -- You’re in the AOR for a little over 3 months – how do you feel its going?

A -- The bad guys are being captured or leaving, so we’re doing OK.

Marne Torch II is not just about fighting and killing; I want to highlight a couple of other things that are happening here. The big piece that General Mustafa has worked real hard with the coalition forces -- and more importantly, with other Iraqis -- is the stuff people need.

He has reached across to the Shi'as, which are not in the local area but 10, 15 kilometers away where he has friends and coordinated with them, and they have pushed food, supplies, water, propane, which is used for cooking, to their friends in need. It truly is great to see. Normal Iraqis don't call themselves Shi'a or Sunnis, the folks who are out here; they are Iraqis. And so they don't have that bias that we read about a lot in the paper, which is good to see.

Q -- How are “essential services” in your area?

A -- We probably have the best electricity in Iraq. We're 20 hours a day, sometimes 24 hours, for several days at a time, which is not the norm.

We're getting the water pumps, which pushes water from the Tigris through these canals to 20 to 30 kilometers away. Not working great, but it's enough to reach the farmers' fields.

So that's the way ahead -- governance, getting the infrastructure started -- that's all been possible because a serious situation is improving. But there is a lot of work to do. We're still pushing further south, and the goal is to continue to secure the population so more people can become concerned citizens and secure themselves and their families.

Q -- Are the locals helping? This is their village, their country. Are they doing their part?

A -- The answer is yes, some want to join, but not all. Some just want to go back to be a farmer.

So right now out of the 538 who have signed up -- and this number's a little soft -- about 200 would like to become local police. They don't want to be police that are sent to Baghdad or Basra or Mosul; they want to be small-town cops to protect their area. Some want to be Iraqi Army, which they know they could be stationed anywhere. But most, probably above 50 percent, just want to go back to be farmers and laborers and schoolteachers and engineers.

A lot of the concerned citizens would not meet the screening requirements for the Iraqi army or the Iraqi police. Some of the screening requirements include being able to read, and we are in an agrarian neighborhood. It is all farm; there's no industry, and some of the guys cannot read. You know, he's still a brave man for standing his post as a concerned citizen. Some of the concerned citizens are about 45, 50 years old. Again, it is 1776 militia time back in Boston, where, you know, everybody stood up. We have some concerned citizens that have a father and six sons out there.

Some will not make the screening requirements based on age or education. And they're OK with that because they want to grow their okra and their dates and to get back to the fields because that's what they know how to do.

Some do and some don't. It’s a personal decision, and right now they're pretty darn brave

Q -- Anything you’d like to add?

A -- Yes. It has been a challenging period. We're just over a hundred days here -- brutal, hot summer, Spartan living conditions as we build these new patrol bases, and candidly a determined enemy in AQI. They build IEDs here that are formidable, the deep-buried IEDs using the homemade explosives. But throughout it all, the American soldier -- it's just amazing to see what these young kids have been able to do. And they see they're making a difference and they believe in their mission. So it's going okay. We look forward to continuing our progress here.