over and over and over and over we hear

that we are losing marines and other soliders, BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TROOPS OVER THERE.

The NYT hangs out with the military in the usually insurgent-dominated northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar and describes it as stuck in a "cycle that has been repeated in rebellious cities throughout Iraq": GIs sweep in, drive away insurgents, and then leave, at which point the insurgents return. After the military's first offensive in the city, about 500 GIs stayed to patrol the border region, which is twice the size of Connecticut. The military is now back in force—though they still don't have enough soldiers to patrol outlying hamlets.

"We have a finite number of troops," the executive officer of the unit now overseeing Tal Afar told the NYT. "But if you pull out of an area and don't leave security forces in it, all you're going to do is leave the door open for them to come back. This is what our lack of combat power has done to us throughout the country."

--source