WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Unsaid but underscoring Gen. David Petraeus' difficult mission in Iraq is this: the U.S. military has never had enough troops in Iraq to secure the country.
Military commanders call the phenomenon, with some derision, an "economy of force" war -- that is, just enough troops were committed to maintain a degree of initiative but never enough to decisively control the situation.
At a Pentagon press conference, Petraeus, the commander of coalition forces, warned that violence may increase rather than decrease as the surge continues because it is pushing troops into areas they have never before held.
"As you move into areas that you've not operated in before, as you contend with elements that were in those areas that in some cases were not challenged," Petraeus said, "I mean, there are some ... areas ... that had become, to some degree, sanctuaries for certain extremist organizations."
A senior official told United Press International Wednesday the number of troops in Iraq -- between 125,000 and 140,000 for most of the last four years -- reflected the strategy that held sway in the White House and Pentagon: the emphasis was not on winning so much as on containing the insurgency while transitioning as much responsibility as quickly as possible to Iraqi forces and the Iraqi government.
The surge -- an addition of some 28,000 troops to Baghdad, Diyala and Anbar provinces -- is a shift in that approach. While the intention is still to transition responsibility, it recognizes that the nascent Iraqi forces are not yet a match for the depth and the experience of the adversary in Iraq.
