Thursday, September 18, 2008

Petraeus' Legacy

General Petraeus has turned over the Iraq command to his successor, whose name escapes me. It's too bad that General Petraeus seems to have become an object of partisan controversy, because he is clearly an extraordinary military leader. Under his leadership, the violence in Iraq has been greatly reduced. Someone I talked to about a year ago had actually worked for him in the Army, and said at that time that he was brilliant, hard-working, and even driven. It is to President Bush's credit that he recognized that and chose him to take over the Iraq situation.

It is Petraeus, and not necessarily the 'Surge', that has accomplished the pacification of Iraq, such as it is. (Check out this article describing General Petraeus' work in Iraq.) A large part of the result is due to the 'Sunni Awakening', whereby the local leaders of the Sunni Muslims west of Baghdad were encouraged, and in many cases, paid to turn against the Al-Qaeda and work, at least temporaily, with the Shia-led government. The divide between the Sunni and Shia, as well as the Kurds in the north, continues and will probably prove to a big, big problem for Iraq in the future.

This doesn't mean that the Iraq War was a just war or the right thing to do. (I publicly opposed it before we invaded, which is where I agree with Obama and admire his judgment.) But for now, things are much better and much of the credit has to go to General Petraeus.

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