Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. Army, talks with members of Combined Joint Task Force - 101 at Combat Outpost Marghah, Afghanistan, on Nov. 6, 2008. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley A. Lail, U.S. Air Force. (Released)From Times Online:
David Petraeus, the US general who transformed the campaign in Iraq, has been declared the leading public intellectual. The thinking man’s soldier explains the limitations of shooting and killing.
Sometimes a man’s appearance can be misleading. This one is about 5ft 9in tall, not especially powerful in build; he has ears that stick out and teeth that seem too big for his mouth and he walks with a slightly asymmetric tilt. Yet this is General David Petraeus, the warrior whose “surge” saved America from a humiliating scuttle out of Iraq and who is now the head of United States Central Command (Centcom).
Only when Petraeus engages in conversation does everything snap into place. Each of his words is chosen with painstaking precision and the gaze is similarly well directed. Above all there is a sense of restless intelligence; so perhaps it is not so extraordinary that this 56-year-old soldier has been named the world’s leading public intellectual by a panel nominated by two prominent magazines of the thinking classes, Prospect and Foreign Policy.
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My Comment: In all fairness .... he is one man among many who developed the surge and counter insurgency model for Iraq. But as the public face for the Iraq campaign ... he definitely has received the kudos for its success.
Afghanistan is going to be a different nut to crack. Personally, I am not optimistic for a short or medium term success. Political constraints are going to be imposed on General Petraeus, unlike Iraq where President Bush gave him the green light to do what was necessary for success.
In this campaign it will be Congress and the White House that will ultimately determine Afghan strategy .... not General Petraeus. And it is because of this political involvement that I fear the ingredients for failure will be in placed .... not the ingredients that are necessary for success.And if Afghanistan becomes a failure .... I can guarantee you that the politicians and their media supporters will blame this loss on General Petraeus.