‘Terrain denial’ may be new blueprint for rebuilding in Iraq

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Capt. Philip O’Brien (front) and Sgt. Curtis Calhoun walk under an arch at Wishbone Park in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. The peninsula that the park sits on was once overgrown with weeds, allowing hidden enemy fighters to spy on a nearby joint security station.


‘Terrain denial’ may be new blueprint for rebuilding in Iraq
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 21, 2009

BAGHDAD — When U.S. forces first went into Sadr City last spring, they knew rebuilding was going to be critical to stamping out tensions in the restive Baghdad slum. Yet the effort was coming over five years into the war.

Sadr City may have been desperately short of key services — even by current Iraqi standards — but stateside war weariness meant Congress was no longer willing to sign a blank check for Iraqi reconstruction.

But the Americans brought with them a novel tactic dubbed "non-lethal terrain denial" that the 4th Infantry Division developed in 2007 during its preparations to deploy to Iraq. The tactic, which was called "Steadfast Falcon" during the planning stages, was a new, focused way of using civil reconstruction projects to create an inhospitable environment for enemy fighters.

Leaders brought Steadfast Falcon with them to Iraq but didn’t have a chance to put it into action for the first several months they were in Baghdad. Then Sadr City exploded in March in response to the Iraqi government’s crackdown on Shiite militias in Basra.

Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric whose Mahdi Army dominated the slum, agreed to a cease-fire after hard fighting devastated his supporters. Under the terms of that cease-fire, U.S. forces could go into the southern third of the previously off-limits area, while Iraqi army units would control the northern two-thirds of Sadr City.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60858