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The Most Important Man in the World
In January 2007, when President George W. Bush named Gen. David Petraeus commander of the multi-national forces in Iraq, the war had been going badly for almost four years. Support for the war in Congress had all but collapsed. The Pentagon, unable to win the war, seemed frozen, advising the President merely to pursue the same strategy that was already failing. A small group of officers and civilians—retired Gen. Jack Keane, Frederick Kagan, Vice President Cheney—had urged the President instead to attempt a new strategy, a surge, based largely on the work Gen. Petraeus had published in Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency.
Gen. Petraeus—it all came down to Gen. Petraeus. If he failed, the war in Iraq would be lost—and the prestige and strategic standing of the most powerful nation on earth would be damaged irreparably. From January 2007, when he took command in Iraq, until September 2008, when, having turned around the entire conflict, producing a genuine victory, he stepped down, Gen. David Petraeus was the most important man in the world.
Now a new President has given Petraeus a new command, “on the eve,” as Steve Hayes wrote on Ricochet earlier today, “of what could be the decisive front in the escalating battle.” No one else possessed the experience or standing to succeed Gen. McChrystal. Once again, it all comes down to Gen. Petraeus. Once again, he is the most important man in the world.
Published in General
For those interested, an excellent profile of General Petraeus is here.
Along with flexible vs. fixed withdrawal deadlines, this is another big difference between the two counter-insurgencies, and why success is harder in Afghanistan:
True that, Peter, as the kids say. Thank God for General Petraeus.
Although, allow me one dose of spite: I wonder how many of the know-nothing mandarins in the Obama administration cheered this on, in another time, under another president?
Afghanistan is going to be hard — maybe even impossible. People have been trying to sort that country out for centuries. I’m categorically pessimistic about Afghanistan and equally optimistic about Iraq, for the reasons etoiledunord states above, among others. But it’s nice knowing Petraeus is in charge. And it’s nice knowing that he now has a pretty wide brief to do what needs to be done.
Afghanistan is not Iraq, which has a long history of strong central government, and where the “problems,” after year four, could almost entirely be traced to foreign radicals that came from Saudi, Syria and other Arab states, and to foreign government intervention, such as Shia Iran’s funding of Sunni militants in Iraq to fan the flames and foil liberalization of Iraq. The enemy in Afghanistan, the Talib, are Afghans, whose only crime, beyond what we view as repugnant orthodox Islam, and the desire for the nation to be ruled under Sharia law, the only crime was having a leader, Mullah Omar, who made a deal with the devil, bin Laden, in order for Osama to stay and have “a base.” Al Qaeda literally means “the base” in Arabic.
The enemy in Afghanistan is not AL Queda, but Taliban that have returned to their villages, and for the most part been embraced. A good question to ask is how many Afghans joined bin Laden during all the years he was there. None.
Now is the time to leave and declare victory..and dare I say it, follow Biden’s suggestion and set up a drone watch of Pakistan.
Maybe this belongs in another thread, but …
This is surely telling. For the first time in this administration the President has made a difficult decision swiftly and decisively — and it was about an insult to him.
By some measure, we have already won in Afghanistan. I’m part of a group that sends stuffed animals to a battalion on the Af/Pak border that hands them out to children, girls especially, during patrols. I heard from a SFC who received the items that they were appreciated and especially important with elections coming up. It reminded me of what I heard when we first entered Afghanistan – that the maps in the schools showed the US as a small country and Afghanistan as large. We’ve altered that view considerably. A decade ago, the future for many a young girl once she reached puberty was to be married off to a man twice her age to become his personal servant. I’d like to think their opportunities have grown. I would venture that the literacy rate in Afghanistan mirrors the education of the average colonial resident during the Revolutionary War. If people can be convinced that opportunity is within their grasp and life will be better without the Taliban in power, they will fight.
Yes, thank God for General Petraeus. But if he is indeed our most competent military man, didn’t we just steal from Peter to pay Paul? As worried as we are about Afghanistan, aren’t we even more worried about Iran, which until now was included in Petraeus’s responsibilties? Got to deal with the wolf that’s eating you, I know, but in the greater sweep of history, Iran’s the more serious issue, and now our uber-general is no longer on the case.