In the face of stubborn insurgency, troops scale back Anbar patrols: "After losing dozens of men to a 'voiceless, faceless mass of people' with no clear leadership or political aim other than killing American soldiers, the U.S. military has had to re-evaluate the situation, said Army Maj. Thomas Neemeyer, the head American intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, the main military force in the Ramadi area and from there to Fallujah. 'They cannot militarily overwhelm us, but we cannot deliver a knockout blow, either,' he said. 'It creates a form of stalemate.'

"In the wreckage of the security situation, Neemeyer said, U.S. officials have all but given up on plans to install a democratic government in the city, and are hoping instead that Islamic extremists and other insurgent groups don't overrun the province in the same way that they've seized the region's most infamous town, Fallujah."

"Pointing to a neighborhood outside the town of Habbaniyah, between Fallujah and Ramadi, [Jasper] said, "We've lost a lot of Marines there and we don't ever go in anymore. If they want it that bad, they can have it." And then to a spot on the western edge of Fallujah: "We find that if we don't go there, they won't shoot us.""

"Between the 1st Brigade's 4,000 soldiers, who arrived in Ramadi last September, and a battalion of 1,000 Marines, who came in February, more than 80 have been killed and more than 450 injured. Since the hand-over of sovereignty June 28, 25 U.S. soldiers have been killed. Fifteen of them were in Anbar. The numbers grow more striking at smaller unit levels. Capt. Mike Taylor, for example, commands a company of men in nearby Khaldiya. Out of his 76 troops, 18 now have purple hearts, awarded for combat wounds. The Marines' Echo company, with 185 members, has had 22 killed.... "The only way to stomp out the insurgency of the mind," [Niemeyer] said, "would be to kill the entire population.""

In the face of stubborn insurgency, troops scale back Anbar patrols: "After losing dozens of men to a 'voiceless, faceless mass of people' with no clear leadership or political aim other than killing American soldiers, the U.S. military has had to re-evaluate the situation, said Army Maj. Thomas Neemeyer, the head American intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, the main military force in the Ramadi area and from there to Fallujah. 'They cannot militarily overwhelm us, but we cannot deliver a knockout blow, either,' he said. 'It creates a form of stalemate.'

"In the wreckage of the security situation, Neemeyer said, U.S. officials have all but given up on plans to install a democratic government in the city, and are hoping instead that Islamic extremists and other insurgent groups don't overrun the province in the same way that they've seized the region's most infamous town, Fallujah."

"Pointing to a neighborhood outside the town of Habbaniyah, between Fallujah and Ramadi, [Jasper] said, "We've lost a lot of Marines there and we don't ever go in anymore. If they want it that bad, they can have it." And then to a spot on the western edge of Fallujah: "We find that if we don't go there, they won't shoot us.""

"Between the 1st Brigade's 4,000 soldiers, who arrived in Ramadi last September, and a battalion of 1,000 Marines, who came in February, more than 80 have been killed and more than 450 injured. Since the hand-over of sovereignty June 28, 25 U.S. soldiers have been killed. Fifteen of them were in Anbar. The numbers grow more striking at smaller unit levels. Capt. Mike Taylor, for example, commands a company of men in nearby Khaldiya. Out of his 76 troops, 18 now have purple hearts, awarded for combat wounds. The Marines' Echo company, with 185 members, has had 22 killed.... "The only way to stomp out the insurgency of the mind," [Niemeyer] said, "would be to kill the entire population.""