According to Time Magazine, Brigadier General Ali Jassim Mohammed Hassen al-Frejee could be the best officer the fledgling Iraqi Army has to offer. Assigned to the insurgent rat nest that was the Baghdad suburb of Lutufiyah in 2004, al-Frejee quickly gained the respect of both Iraqi and Coalition forces for his gladiatorial leadership style. The results speak for themselves.
...after nearly four years of continuous fighting, [Lutufiyah] is now one of the safest in the country as a result of increasingly sophisticated counterinsurgency techniques and close cooperation between the Iraqi and American armies. The success here may be a model for Iraqi-U.S. Army cooperation in the future, and many American commanders in the region attribute a large part of the success to "General Ali's" skill as a professional soldier. "He has been here from the beginning," says Lieutenant Colonel William Zemp, the U.S. commander of a unit that works daily with General Ali's men. "The pacification of this area is his struggle, it is his story."
General Ali adapted a strategy that has served Generals well over the course of history. " My tactics are simple," he says. " Whenever we see the enemy, we go after them." Even in the largely non-kinetic world of COIN operations, Patton-esqe aggressiveness works wonders. H/T Danger Room