Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Insurgents and terrorists are holding Tal Afar near the Syrian border and we are about to take it down with some type of military assault.

The enemy is also in Qaim, near the Syrian border further south, where we have struck them.

It sure seems like we are pushing the insurgents west, in the sense that their places of relative safety where they can plan and rest are farther and farther from the central populated areas. It should also be noted that these sanctuaries are purely temporary and we gain the chance to kill a bunch of the enemy all at once.

Sure, terrorists still manage to reach the populated areas, but it is a longer and tougher trip and when they arrive the defenses are much better.

Before long, as we bring new Iraqi units in to garrison what we capture (and as Iraqi units gain the ability to do the capturing in the first place), we will deprive the enemy of the ability to establish even temporary havens within Iraq. The enemy will have to pull back inside Syria itself to retain such sanctuaries.

Won't that be an interesting debate in Damascus? And In Tehran, where they've counted on the Syrians to maintain the active front in their alliance to keep Iraq from becoming a functioning democracy.

And in Washington, too, I imagine, the debate will be intense once it becomes clear what boy Assad chooses (or is told to choose).