(no subject)
Unpublished.
Second Chances
David Petraeus got a second chance at life. Now he’s fighting to give Iraq a second chance.
Earl Mikell
“Fred Johnson said it just the other day. He said it to me, “When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.”
- Michael Yon, Second Chances, MichaelYon-Online.com
David Petraeus’s story begins in 1991, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the legendary 101st Airborne Division. He was a Lieutenant Colonel then, and new to the division, hadn’t made an impact yet. One day, his unit was conducting live fire exercises at a shooting range, and Petraeus, in what would be a future hallmark of his leadership, was present and guiding it. Specialist Terrance Jones, one of the soldiers in the unit, tripped near Petraeus and accidentally discharged his M-16 rifle, with the round from the rifle shot into Petraeus.
He took the wound in his chest, and it also went through his back on the way out. Emergency personnel were summoned, and the colonel was transported to Nashville, Tennessee, for emergency surgery. In an interesting twist of fate, the surgeon on call was none other than Tennessee’s future Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist. Frist saved his life. After the drama settled down, Lt. Colonel Fred Johnson, who was then a Captain and Jones’s immediate commander, and Jones were called in by Petraeus.
Most other officers would have dressed them down or punished them. Not Petraeus. Johnson, in Yon’s article, had thought his career was at an early end. Petraeus instead recommended him for early promotion, to the rank of Major. Johnson thereafter became a believer in second chances. And as for Specialist Jones? Oh, he was punished, alright. Petraeus sent him to Ranger School. Most men in the Army dream of attending Ranger School, and only few get the chance to actually attend and become an Army Ranger. Jones did, because of Petraeus, despite the shooting. What Petraeus had done was give them a second chance, because he himself had gotten a second chance at life.
Then- Lieutenant Colonel Petraeus is now Army General Petraeus, and he is now running the war effort in Iraq. He has just completed two whirlwind days, September 10 and 11, of testimonies to Congress, on the war, and has made several addresses as well, in conjunction with Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Petraeus testified on the Surge, as the renewed and ramped up military effort this year is being called. Much of the Surge is being done with tactics and strategies recommended from the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual, which Petraeus himself actually wrote before being promoted to General and named as the new American commander in Iraq.
The previous years, after the invasion, had seen squandered opportunities and lost momentum. Senior Army commanders preferred to maintain a light footprint in Iraq, incorrectly thinking the Iraqis would be able to stand up quickly. But the depredations of Saddam’s reign had so thoroughly cowed the people that they were unable to do anything on a communal level. Petraeus, as a lower ranking commander of the 101st Airborne, went a different path, in his assigned city, Mosul, and utilized tactics that encouraged engagement on the street level with the people, and jointly working with the local police and government, even to the point of living with them. What Petraeus accomplished in Mosul, however, wasn’t replicated on a large scale throughout the country, owing to the inability of his predecessors to engage the conflict on a personal level.
What it meant was the seemingly nearing possibility of withdrawal under fire, ceding Iraq to al-Qaeda and the other groups jockeying for the country. Decisions had to be made in Washington, and President Bush went for the surge, authorizing an increase in the number of troops, ordering that the strategy be changed, and the commander be changed. Petraeus, within the U.S. Army, was the foremost proponent of the surge, and had conceived the counterinsurgency manual, which needed to be used in Iraq, and hadn’t been before him. He was optimistic about the new strategy succeeding in Iraq, where other strategies hadn’t worked, and put forward a vision of how events would unfold according to the surge planning.
His testimony to Congress released his initial opinion on the surge, and he pronounced that the surge is succeeding in its military objectives as of this moment. Petraeus indicated that with the establishment of security, especially in Anbar, political progress could then be made next year, which would lead to the conclusion of the surge and an initial drawdown of troops. Political reconciliation from the ground up (political progress at the top needs more time) is already occurring, with former enemies like the 1920 Revolution Brigades working in tandem with U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaeda. The Iraqi Army, having made great strides recently in fighting and growing up, has also been operating with the U.S. as well. In essence, despite the years and people lost, progress is finally being made, as indicated by the Petraeus Report.
There is a strain evident in Petraeus’s words and deeds. He believes in second chances, and he’s demonstrated it in person. The concept of passing along second chances rings strongly with him. It is what he has brought to Iraq, along with new strategies, people, and hope. Iraq has been written off before, and nearly saw the Americans decide for withdrawal last year, before Petraeus and the surge’s other proponents convinced the President that a surge was needed instead. What happened in the last year or so is what Petraeus has been doing all his life: giving others, in this case Iraq, a second chance.
Second Chances
David Petraeus got a second chance at life. Now he’s fighting to give Iraq a second chance.
Earl Mikell
“Fred Johnson said it just the other day. He said it to me, “When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.”
- Michael Yon, Second Chances, MichaelYon-Online.com
David Petraeus’s story begins in 1991, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the legendary 101st Airborne Division. He was a Lieutenant Colonel then, and new to the division, hadn’t made an impact yet. One day, his unit was conducting live fire exercises at a shooting range, and Petraeus, in what would be a future hallmark of his leadership, was present and guiding it. Specialist Terrance Jones, one of the soldiers in the unit, tripped near Petraeus and accidentally discharged his M-16 rifle, with the round from the rifle shot into Petraeus.
He took the wound in his chest, and it also went through his back on the way out. Emergency personnel were summoned, and the colonel was transported to Nashville, Tennessee, for emergency surgery. In an interesting twist of fate, the surgeon on call was none other than Tennessee’s future Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist. Frist saved his life. After the drama settled down, Lt. Colonel Fred Johnson, who was then a Captain and Jones’s immediate commander, and Jones were called in by Petraeus.
Most other officers would have dressed them down or punished them. Not Petraeus. Johnson, in Yon’s article, had thought his career was at an early end. Petraeus instead recommended him for early promotion, to the rank of Major. Johnson thereafter became a believer in second chances. And as for Specialist Jones? Oh, he was punished, alright. Petraeus sent him to Ranger School. Most men in the Army dream of attending Ranger School, and only few get the chance to actually attend and become an Army Ranger. Jones did, because of Petraeus, despite the shooting. What Petraeus had done was give them a second chance, because he himself had gotten a second chance at life.
Then- Lieutenant Colonel Petraeus is now Army General Petraeus, and he is now running the war effort in Iraq. He has just completed two whirlwind days, September 10 and 11, of testimonies to Congress, on the war, and has made several addresses as well, in conjunction with Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Petraeus testified on the Surge, as the renewed and ramped up military effort this year is being called. Much of the Surge is being done with tactics and strategies recommended from the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual, which Petraeus himself actually wrote before being promoted to General and named as the new American commander in Iraq.
The previous years, after the invasion, had seen squandered opportunities and lost momentum. Senior Army commanders preferred to maintain a light footprint in Iraq, incorrectly thinking the Iraqis would be able to stand up quickly. But the depredations of Saddam’s reign had so thoroughly cowed the people that they were unable to do anything on a communal level. Petraeus, as a lower ranking commander of the 101st Airborne, went a different path, in his assigned city, Mosul, and utilized tactics that encouraged engagement on the street level with the people, and jointly working with the local police and government, even to the point of living with them. What Petraeus accomplished in Mosul, however, wasn’t replicated on a large scale throughout the country, owing to the inability of his predecessors to engage the conflict on a personal level.
What it meant was the seemingly nearing possibility of withdrawal under fire, ceding Iraq to al-Qaeda and the other groups jockeying for the country. Decisions had to be made in Washington, and President Bush went for the surge, authorizing an increase in the number of troops, ordering that the strategy be changed, and the commander be changed. Petraeus, within the U.S. Army, was the foremost proponent of the surge, and had conceived the counterinsurgency manual, which needed to be used in Iraq, and hadn’t been before him. He was optimistic about the new strategy succeeding in Iraq, where other strategies hadn’t worked, and put forward a vision of how events would unfold according to the surge planning.
His testimony to Congress released his initial opinion on the surge, and he pronounced that the surge is succeeding in its military objectives as of this moment. Petraeus indicated that with the establishment of security, especially in Anbar, political progress could then be made next year, which would lead to the conclusion of the surge and an initial drawdown of troops. Political reconciliation from the ground up (political progress at the top needs more time) is already occurring, with former enemies like the 1920 Revolution Brigades working in tandem with U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaeda. The Iraqi Army, having made great strides recently in fighting and growing up, has also been operating with the U.S. as well. In essence, despite the years and people lost, progress is finally being made, as indicated by the Petraeus Report.
There is a strain evident in Petraeus’s words and deeds. He believes in second chances, and he’s demonstrated it in person. The concept of passing along second chances rings strongly with him. It is what he has brought to Iraq, along with new strategies, people, and hope. Iraq has been written off before, and nearly saw the Americans decide for withdrawal last year, before Petraeus and the surge’s other proponents convinced the President that a surge was needed instead. What happened in the last year or so is what Petraeus has been doing all his life: giving others, in this case Iraq, a second chance.