The stick - at least for the time being - is Col. Steven Salazar, 47, commander of "Task Force Sledgehammer," the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Where other senior military officers lavish attention on local sheiks and work the imams, Salazar leaves that to his battalion commanders.

This is not to say he doesn't try to abide by local cultural norms. In genial conversations with the province's governor and chief of police, Salazar lards his conversations with as many flowery compliments and "God willings" as anyone. He is patient and politic with callers on his monthly radio appearance.

But once convinced diplomacy is not getting him anywhere, he happily abandons talk for action.

The sheik in Muqtadiya, a large town north of Baquba, this week is learning what happens when he refuses a request from Salazar.

The roads around the city - roads driven on by U.S. and Iraqi forces and civilians - have recently seen a spate of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the roadside bombs that cause the bulk of U.S. casualties in Iraq. A U.S. commander went to discuss the matter with Sheik Allawi.

"Sheik Allawi has the ability to manage this problem when he wants to," Salazar said Wednesday.

The bombs did not stop. So Salazar implemented a strategy he has used throughout his area of operations, the western half of Diyala, just north of Baghdad: shut down the road on which any IED is found for 24 to 48 hours. It's a matter of safety, but also one of spreading the pain. If the local community is inconvenienced by the road closure, goes the theory, perhaps they will put pressure on the local insurgents to stop.

"But we continued to have IEDs in Muqtadiya," Salazar said. "So we informed the sheik that whenever we find an IED we will eliminate every (obstacle and structure) within a 100 meters of the bomb."

In this case it means date palms and small roadside shacks from which people sell sodas and snacks. But next time it could be more substantial structures.

"It's completely within our (rules of engagement). Anything used by (insurgents) can be taken away, from berms to old infrastructures, whatever ... But this is really the first time we've used it. This is a little bit different," said Salazar.

"We're trying to get them to see cause and effect. If there is an IED attack in the afternoon we begin interdiction that night."

Counter-insurgency theory emphasizes winning the loyalty of the people and warns against overreaction to insurgent violence, which can turn the population against the Iraqi and U.S. forces.

"That's been a challenge in Muqtadiya," Salazar said. "There is that argument that comes from locals to sheiks, and then to our commanders. That's a tough one. You've got to balance it.

"But," he concludes, "if you live in a neighborhood that is not in favor of coalition forces to begin with, there's not a lot to lose."

He says has seen the tough approach work elsewhere.

"We know it will work just like it did in Buhriz," Salazar said, upon informing Diyala Gov. Ra'ad Hameed Juwad of the plan Wednesday.

Buhriz, a town south of Baquba, was on June 17 the scene of a particularly grisly IED. The bomb had been packed with white phosphorous, a sticky substance that clung to and burned through the victims in the vehicle - two American soldiers, a translator and a civilian informant, all killed.

Salazar shut the city down for a week - no one went in or out - and fired artillery into the palm groves south of town, an operating base for insurgents at night. After a week of shelling the mayor, known through local informants to be in league with the fighters, still declined to give up the bombers. The town stayed shut, and a massive raid team swept in to scoop up locals who might be associated with the IED cell. The mayor was arrested and removed from office.

"It took a lot of work but now Buhriz sees the light," said Salazar, with a small smile.

His big stick approach is a variation on the good cop/bad cop construct, and he does not shy away from his part in it.

"I have a great bunch of battalion commanders who have a great relationship with their mayors," he said, freeing him up to be the heavy.

"What I don't want to do is wait for the precipitating event," he said. "That's the lesson from June 17. I'm not going to accept it. The goal is not one IED a day down from five or 10. The goal is zero."

Attacks are spiking across western Diyala in advance of the October constitutional referendum. Abu Musab al Zarqawi is believed to have swung through the region to buck up his followers, but attacks are still far below the level they were at this time last year. The 3rd Brigade believes this means they are capturing and killing the ringleaders and experts and have forced second-string insurgents into the fight, a sign of progress.

But perhaps insurgents are just fixing their focus more firmly on Iraqi police and military.

In Khalis, an Iraqi army dining facility was recently targeted by a suicide-vest bomber. The attack killed 23.

In August, an Iraqi police facility in downtown Baqubah was similarly attacked, killing eight Iraqis and two Americans, including the Army reservist who had just begun SWAT training the local police. On September 3, insurgents conducted a small arms attack on a traffic checkpoint manned by Iraqi police, killing all nine.

Still, Salazar is optimistic about Diyala's future, particularly with Gov. Ra'ad in charge.

"People think of Baqubah as the wild, wild west," Salazar said. "That's just not the case."

Provincial security got a major break with the election in January, and Salazar expects the same improvement after the October vote.

U.S. military plans bank on it: The brigade replacing Sledgehammer next year will also supplant a National Guard brigade in eastern Diyala, a single battalion doing the work of three.

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