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Petraeus Looks Back On Iraq Tour

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The New York Times

Published: August 21, 2008

BAGHDAD - In the final days of his campaign to bring Iraq under control, Gen. David Petraeus sat in his office at the U.S. Embassy here looking drawn, exhausted, and more than a few years older than when he took command 18 months ago.

Petraeus is preparing to leave Iraq a remarkably safer place than it was when he arrived. Violence has plummeted from its apocalyptic peaks, Iraqi leaders are asserting themselves, and streets that once seemed dead are flourishing with life. The worst, for now, has been averted.

He leaves next month to take over command of U.S. forces in the Middle East.

"I don't know that it was a death spiral, but I mean it was a pretty dire situation," Petraeus said, referring to his arrival as the senior commander in February 2007. "There have been very substantial gains at this point. Don't take any of this to imply that we think we're anywhere near finished.

"It's not durable yet. It's not self-sustaining. You know - touch wood - there is still a lot of work to be done."

Petraeus' run as commander coincided with the "surge" of U.S. combat forces into Baghdad, in what amounted to a last, desperate gamble to bring the country under control.

The arrival of the 30,000 extra soldiers, deployed to Baghdad's neighborhoods around the clock, allowed the Americans to exploit a series of momentous events that had begun to unfold at about the same time: the splintering of Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army; the growing competence of the Iraqi army; and most important, the about-face by leaders of the country's Sunni minority, who suddenly stopped opposing the Americans and joined with them against al-Qaida in Iraq and other local extremist groups.

The surge, clearly, has worked, at least for now: Violence, measured in the number of attacks against Americans and Iraqis each week, has dropped by 80 percent in the country since early 2007, according to figures the general provided. Civilian deaths, which peaked at more than 100 a day in late 2006, also have plunged. Car and suicide bombings, which stoked sectarian violence, have fallen from a total of 130 in March 2007 to fewer than 40 last month. In July, fewer Americans were killed in Iraq - 13 - than in any month since the war began.

The result, now visible in the streets, is a calm unlike any that Iraq has seen the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003. The signs - Iraqi families flooding into parks at sundown, merchants throwing open long-shuttered shops - are stunning to anyone who witnessed the country's implosion in 2005 and 2006.

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