Michael Yon has a great two-parter on the building of a new Combat Outpost (aka Joint Security Station aka Combat Observation Post) in Baghdad as part of Gen. Petraeus’ counterinsurgency strategy. The posts are staffed (and resided in) by American and Iraqi soldiers and police within Baghdad neighborhoods.

He has some great photos as well.

Some people at home complain that we will lose more soldiers by putting more out with Iraqis. They probably are right. Heavily armed Iraqi police and soldiers have had hundreds of chances to kill me personally, and haven’t done so yet. They are not all our enemies.

Though we will almost certainly lose more soldiers by weaving them more tightly with Iraqi forces and people, this is a price we must be willing to face. I might feel guilty writing that we have to take these chances if I were not planning to stay out with them.

The new troops who are flooding into Iraq are coming with an entirely new plan in mind. They will move out into the neighborhoods. In each of nearly 80 neighborhoods, our people will make “Combat Outposts” and staff those with American and Iraqi forces or police.