The Iraqi Triangle of Death, south of Baghdad, was a raging inferno of insurgent activity in August of 2006; by November 2007, attacks had been suppressed to such an extent as to return the area to near obscurity. In the intervening months, the U.S. Army 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry (“Polar Bears”) employed a counterinsurgency approach that set the conditions for a landmark peace agreement that has held to the present.
With a focus on counterinsurgency, this book is the first to look at the breadth of military operations in Yusifiyah, Iraq, and to analyze the methods the Polar Bears employed. It is a story not of those who fought in the Triangle of Death, but of how they fought.

U.S. Army officer Darrell E. Fawley III’s writing has appeared in Infantry magazine, Army magazine and Small Wars Journal. He lives in Athens, Ohio.

Darrell E. Fawley III
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 229
Bibliographic Info: 24 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7605-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3831-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1

Introduction 7

1. A Land on Fire 11

2. The Polar Bears Go Marching In 31

3. Mountain Men in a Flat Land 52

4. Into the Heart of Darkness 85

5. A New Strategy? 104

6. The Unceremonious Pyre 130

7. A New Day 140

8. Going Home, Staying Behind 159

9. What It All Means: Theory of Small Unit Counterinsurgency 171

Conclusion 192

Acronyms and Abbreviations 195

Chapter Notes 197

Bibliography 207

Index 215

• “[This book] is the first to take a detailed and documented look at the breadth of military operations in Yusifiyah, Iraq, and analyze the methods the Polar Bears employed. …recommended…exceptionally well written, organized and presented”—Midwest Book Review