The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost—From Ancient Greece to Iraq

by Victor Davis Hanson

  (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/22/opinion/22ohanlon.html).

  O’Hanlon earlier in July (with Kenneth Pollack) had opined, “A War We Just Might Win” in a New York Times opinion piece

  (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html?pagewanted=all).

  And see the reports of the surge’s progress, given as a lecture by General Raymond Odierno in March 2008

  (http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-surge-in-iraq-one-year-later).

  West, Strongest Tribe, assesses the value of the Anbar Awakening, quite apart from the surge, 365–66.

  44. On the Anbar Awakening, see Kagan, Surge, 79–81, who argues that the uprising was independent of the surge but quickly and skillfully exploited by Generals Odierno and Petraeus. For the efforts of MacFarland and H. R. MacMaster, cf. Moyer, Question of Command, 239–42; cf. 233–34; more on the nature of what worked during the surge, cf. Gericke, Petraeus, 149–53.

  45. For the changing political positions concerning the surge, as it increasingly seemed to work, review a debate over its success held at the Council on Foreign Relations in May 2008:

  http://www.cfr.org/iraq/has-surge-put-iraq-path-success/p16185.

  Steve Simon, “The Price of the Surge” (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2008), argued that the surge’s short-term success had actually made things worse by encouraging the quasiofficial use of Sunni tribal militias. Well into late 2008, war critics still maintained that the surge had not worked; cf. P. Hart, “Spinning the Surge: Iraq and the Election”

  (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3611).

  46. See a review of some of these factors in P. Mansoor, “How the Surge Worked,” August 10, 2008

  (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080802918_pf.html),

  who credits the numbers and strategy of the surge, as well as the leadership of Petraeus, as the catalysts for other positive developments. See, too, his Sunrise, concerning Mansoor’s pre-surge commands. For a review of the “surge did not work” school of thought, see a synopsis by R. Haddick, “This Week at War: What If the Surge Didn’t Work,” Foreign Policy, April 15, 2011

  (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/15/this_week_at_war_what_if_the_surge_didn_t_work).

  47. On the notion that counterinsurgency often hinged on killing scores of “irreconcilable” enemy, cf. Moyer, Question of Command, 245–46. For the scope of U.S. military operations against the insurgents, see Kagan, Surge, 196–204. “Compellence theory”: Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 101.

  48. See Robinson, How This Ends, 52–54; Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 38–41.

  49. On Petraeus’s earlier career and attention to both scholarship and fitness, cf. Ricks, Gamble, 20–23.

  50. Robinson, How This Ends, 60–62. For more on Galvin and Petraeus, cf. Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 65–69.

  51. On the accidental and near fatal shooting of Petraeus, see Robinson, Ends, 61–62.

  52. On the earlier career of Petraeus in Iraq, and some of the controversy around him at the time of his appointment, cf. Ricks, Gamble, 72–73. Mosul: Jaffe and Cloud, Fourth Star, 118–22.

  53. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49283-2004Sep25.html.

  54. Mattis: Moyer, Question of Command, 220–21. On Petraeus at Fort Leavenworth, see Ricks, Gamble, 410–11.

  55. “Commander’s Counterinsurgency Guidance,” cf.

  http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20081031_art004.pdf.

  56. See J. Burns, “For Top General in Iraq, Role Is a Mixed Blessing,” New York Times, August 14, 2007

  (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/middleeast/14petraeus.html).

  57. See the various Pew polls taken over the Petraeus tenure and phrased in a variety of different formulations:

  http://pewresearch.org/pubs/770/iraq-war-five-year-anniversary.

  58. See J. Burns, “For Top General in Iraq, Role Is a Mixed Blessing,” New York Times, August 14, 2007

  (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/middleeast/14petraeus.html).

  Robinson, Ends, 348–50, credits much of the surge’s success to Crocker.

  59. For Odierno’s key role, see Kagan, Surge, 200. The press reacted accordingly as Odierno went from being attacked as an unimaginative punitive commander to praised as a past master of counterinsurgency; best exemplified by the radically different portraits in Ricks’s Fiasco and his sequel Gamble.

  60. On the repercussions from the IED threat, cf. Ricks, Gamble, 21–23. After the “General Betray Us” ad, most public criticism of Petraeus began to disappear, at least to the extent that he would become a media icon and be appointed CIA director by the most liberal president in a generation.

  61.

  http://www.gallup.com/poll/147038/Gov-Christie-Unknown-Majority-Americans.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=plaintextlink&utm_term=Politics;

  for various official praise of Petraeus, see the hagiography in Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 6–7; “no way, no how”: 55; fifth star: 216. For an assessment of Petraeus, cf. Gericke, Petraeus, 184–88.

  62. Biden’s remarks were aired February 10, 2010, on Larry King Live; cf.

  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/02/vice-president-biden-iraq-could-be-one-of-the-great-achievements-of-this-administration/.

  63. Petraeus and his own rather exalted idea of being a savior general: Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 7. Cf. Jaffe and Cloud, Fourth Star, 127–29, for Petraeus’s earlier acceptance of the nickname “King David” (“I don’t know where the King David thing actually came from, but you had to play that role a bit”; Jaffe and Cloud, Fourth Star, 130).

  64. On Petraeus and his complex relationship with the Obama administration—a saga not fully understood at the time this manuscript went to press: Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 120–22.

  65. For Petraeus’s problems in Afghanistan, see the sympathetic account of Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 199–253; and the more critical Woodward quote: 121, “Bush general”:

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/gen-david-petraeus-the-troops-cant-quit/2012/01/19/gIQALYlmKQ_story.html.

  66. http://www.themonitor.com/articles/petraeus-54289-iraq-cia.html.

  On rumors of Petraeus’s consideration of resignation, see

  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/report-petraeus-considered-resigning-over-afghan-drawdown_614981.html.

  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs post: Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 147–48.

  67. Broadwell and Loeb, All In, 202 (reports of exhaustion “irritated Petraeus to no end”).

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