America's indispensable man on the battlefield

摘要

A Decade Of War Has produced one of the most battle-tested, adaptive and innovative generations of military leaders the United States has ever known. At the pinnacle of that group is U.S. Army General David Petraeus. I first met General Petraeus, 58, shortly after I became Defense Secretary in December 2006, and I recommended him soon after for the top job in Iraq. It is easy today to forget the grim situation that existed in that country, and for our country, at that time. But convinced that success was still possible-and using many of the tactics codified in the counterinsurgency manual that Petraeus had recently published-brave Americans and their local partners pulled Iraq from the brink of chaos and paved the way for an orderly U.S.