Boots on the ground can make a difference in Iraq.

“About 10,000 U.S. soldiers launched an offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq northeast of Baghdad early Tuesday, killing at least 22 insurgents, the U.S. military said.
The raids, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said in a statement. The operation was still in its opening stages, it said.

On Monday, military officials said U.S. and Iraqi forces had launched attacks on Baghdad’s northern and southern flanks to clear out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.

A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage of the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to open concerted attacks.

“We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaida and other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the areas clear and to really take on al-Qaida,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the operation. “Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar province and specifically Diyala province.”

Al-Qaida has proven to be an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi forces, as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqouba from Anbar province, the sprawling desert region in western Iraq. There is no guarantee that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent it from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.”

Good plan! First, kick them out of Baghdad, now to the outskirts and beyond. The tactic – although the MSM will miss this – IS to “migrate” them or rather scatter them and keep them on the run, unsettled and disorganized. If you can’t “pitch your tent”, you can’t establish operations.

It will get increasingly ugly as more and more troops fan out and the real assault – months in the planning – gets underway. Al Qaeda will lash out on the populace, but with expected blowback.

“Al-Qaida has conducted public executions in the Baqouba main square and otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The terror organization’s actions in the province have caused some Sunni militants, al-Qaida’s natural allies, to turn their guns on the group with American assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise joining government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.”

This is welcome and can only help us keep them unsettled.

But you have to keep the momentum up along with the pressure. Like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, “What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area….”

UPDATE: Michael Yon, who is on the ground in Iraq has a great write up on the thrust.