No one is more crucial to the future of the Coalition effort in Iraq than David Petraeus, the US commander there. Petraeus is seen by hawks as this war’s Ulysses S. Grant, the man who can turn around the mistakes of his predecessors and forge a victory from unpromising beginnings. This New York Times profile gives you a good taste of the pressures on him and the nature of the man.
Petraeus’s testimony on Capitol Hill in September on the state of the war will be crucial in determining if Congress continues to fund the war. Interestingly, it seems that Petraeus will concentrate on the consequences of withdrawal as much as the progress that the surge is making. The Times reports that talking to some of his fellow officers in Iraq about what would happen if the US left almost immediately, he told them “If you didn’t like Darfur, you’re going to hate Baghdad”.
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