Posted on 09/17/2008 9:31:35 AM PDT by Publius804
Petraeus's Miracle
By David Ignatius
BAGHDAD -- The night before Gen. David Petraeus turned over command here, a group of senior officers gathered at Camp Victory to say goodbye. It was like a football team's testimonial dinner at the end of a winning season: There were steaks and baked potatoes and a highlight film of the general's 20-month command, scored with rock music, called "Surge of Hope."
The signature line of the video was a statement Petraeus made to Congress when he began what seemed to many people like mission impossible: "Hard is not hopeless." That was his closing comment, too, as he relinquished command in an elaborate ceremony Tuesday at the gilded Al Faw Palace. But now, he said, Iraq was "still hard but hopeful."
Petraeus did something astonishing here. It wasn't simply managing the "surge" of U.S. troops, whose precise effects military historians will be debating for years. It was that he restored confidence and purpose for a military that had begun to think, deep down, that this war was unwinnable and unsustainable.
By force of will, Petraeus and his president, George W. Bush, turned that around. They didn't win in Iraq, but they created the possibility of an honorable exit.
Petraeus still doesn't have an answer to the haunting question he asked in March 2003 as the war was beginning: "Tell me how this ends." The ending almost certainly will be ragged; Iraq's political institutions are still fragile and in some cases nonexistent; the country could still be sundered by a Sunni-Shiite civil war. But Iraq now has at least a chance to make it.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Head of the Joint chiefs of Staff? Defense Secretary? although Gates has been doing a pretty good job.
Gads, what a difference between a man of education, accomplishment, and morality (the general) vs a man who is at best an empty suit (Obama).
Gen. David Petraeus God bless you for service to this Nation
Bullsh*t! I am sick and tired of reading this type of nonsense! To say we didn't win in Iraq is a denial of reality and aid and comfort to a worldwide enemy...some of whom are domestic.
We won this war and we are winning the peace. The only way we can now lose in Iraq is if the traitors pull us out...just like they did with Vietnam's "honorable exit".
Ignatius gets it mostly right ping.
truly a GREAT MAN
With him as a presidential candidate we couldn’t lose. If things go well, we might end up having a run of Republican presidents.
We won the war, and the currrent SASO continue to be successful. The war was won within a month based on the requirements laid out to satisfy the UN Resolutions.
That said, GEN Petraeus's work here has been nothing short of miraculous. There was a strong perception that the political will of the American people to keep us here was going to dry up, and we'd wind up pulling out before the job was done. Petraeus managed to do enough, in sufficient time, to change the whole spirit of the conflict, and make it seem doable again.
I'm leaving Baghdad next month, after being here over a year. It's a night and day difference, let me tell you. For the first time since being here in 2004, I feel genuinely confident that things are going to be okay. Not great, but okay. I still have a hard time thinking of it as a 'victory' myself, but even a C+ finish for Iraq will change the future of this region for the better.
Fewer Americans are now killed in a month now in Iraq than in the city of Chicago each weekend.
He blew it badly on this one which rendered his article meaningless. WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ.
Throw in LA, Philly, New York, Detroit, and a few others and we have a war zone in the USA.
That was always the problem. The political will of the American people was always solidly behind you. It was the treasonous politicians and MSM which worked for defeat. These are the domestic enemies...our home-grown Fifth Column.
But once the Commander-In-Chief recognized the problems in Iraq and changed leadership and direction, the political will of the American people could not be denied. We wanted American-style kick-butt victory and you and GEN Petraeus delivered. Well Done!
How Far?!
PALIN/PETRAEUS IN 2012 !!!!
YES YES YES!!!!
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