On June 15, 2007, Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno launched the largest coordinated military operation in Iraq since the initial U.S. invasion. The campaign, called Operation Phantom Thunder, aims to expel al Qaeda from its sanctuaries just outside of Baghdad. Denying al Qaeda the ability to fabricate car bombs and transport fighters through the rural terrain around Baghdad is a necessary prerequisite for securing the capital city, the overarching military goal for Iraq in 2007.

Operation Phantom Thunder is the first co- ordinated, offensive campaign against the insurgency in Iraq.

Phantom Thunder is unusual in the annals of counter-insurgency for its scale and its combination of multiple, complex movements over a large area, all of which focus on essential tasks of counter-insurgency.

The operation has been designed to avoid the pitfalls of previous approaches, denigrated by some critics as a “whack-a-mole” strategy that allows defeated insurgents to flee to safe havens and reconstitute.

A war this large and complex will not end with a single battle or campaign. The art of military command in such conflicts lies in tying multiple, simultaneous, and successive operations together over time. If these operations work properly, they will steadily improve the situation on the ground. The preparations for Operation Phantom Thunder have already done so. The current operation aims to do more. Future Iraq Reports will de- scribe Phantom Thunder in greater detail, as well as the subsequent operations that will surely fol- low.