General Petraeus interview: the man who has al-Qaeda in his sights

General Petraeus interview: the man who has al-Qaeda in his sights

For a man who has spent almost an entire decade waging ferocious war against America’s enemies, General David Petraeus shows no sign of winding down as he approaches the end of his distinguished 37-year career in the military.


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Gen Petraeus believes transferring control of the country to the Afghans is vital to countering Taliban propaganda that Nato wanted to occupy the country indefinitely Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND

By Con Coughlin

10:00PM BST 22 Jul 2011

America’s most famous commander of the modern age began every morning during his stopover in London this week with a punishing run around Hyde Park. “Well, at least now I’m running at sea level,” commented Gen Petraeus when I caught up with him at his central London hotel. “It makes a hell of a difference from running at 6,000 feet as we do in Kabul.”

But then one of the hallmarks of a legendary career, which has seen the 58-year-old Gen Petraeus command the American war effort in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has been his indefatigable determination to triumph over adversity.

As a boy growing up in New York state, he was nicknamed “peaches” because the other boys couldn’t pronounce his Greek name properly. It made him want to do more press-ups than his contemporaries. This steely resolve manifested itself again in 1991 when he nearly died after he was shot in the chest after one his soldiers tripped and accidentally fired a round during a training exercise. A few days after he had undergone five hours of surgery to save his life, Dave, as he is known to his friends, did 50 press ups to demonstrate the incident would not be the end of a promising military career.

This burning desire to succeed has been much in evidence in recent years as Gen Petraeus has found himself struggling to wrest control of military campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan that were in danger of spiralling out of control.

Gen Petraeus’s reputation for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat was made in Iraq, where he masterminded the controversial military “surge” strategy – the “Petraeus doctrine” - which, in 2007, succeeded in ending the violent insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition.

And until last Monday, when he formally stood down as commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, he has been endeavouring to achieve a similar result amid the war-torn plains of southern Afghanistan where he has overseen the implementation of a similar surge strategy to defeat the Taliban.

A year after an extra 30,000 U.S. troops were deployed in support of Gen Petraeus’s all-encompassing counter-insurgency approach to stabilise this benighted country, he concedes that it is too early to say whether the success he enjoyed in Iraq can be repeated.

“We will do everything that is humanly possible to make this succeed,” he said during his visit to London, during which he had a series of meeting with British ministers and officials to update them on progress in the Afghan campaign. “We are waging a comprehensive counter-insurgency campaign to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for the Taliban and other extremists.”

And he insists that, despite all the setbacks, there are signs that progress is finally being made. He points to this week’s handover of Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand, to Afghan control as evidence that the campaign is moving in the right direction. “No one would have predicted 10-12 months ago that we would be able to do this,” he said.

Recent handovers mean that 25 percent of the country is now under the control of the Afghans, with more transfers planned towards the end of the year.

Gen Petraeus believes transferring control of the country to the Afghans is vital to countering Taliban propaganda that Nato wanted to occupy the country indefinitely. “The Taliban used to claim that Nato was here to stay. This has completely undermined their position.”

For all the general’s undoubted enthusiasm for the task in hand, it is clear, during the course of our interview, that the years of total dedication to the cause have taken their toll on this proud champion of America’s warrior class. Apart from being shot, he broke his pelvis when his parachute failed to open properly, and more recently he underwent two months of radiation treatment for cancer which, with typical fortitude, he kept secret for fear of providing the Taliban with a propaganda coup. A lean, spare man, with neatly-cropped brown hair and immaculately dressed in a uniform emblazoned with ribbons and medals, throughout the interview he gently paces around the room to ease the stiffness in his back and legs.

His valedictory assessment of the Afghan mission, though, is that “it is hard, but do-able”, and that a vital component is maintaining the military pressure on the Taliban. Every day, he points out, British and American special forces are taking part in operations that strike five “jackpots” each night – cells of Taliban fighters planning attacks against coalition forces.

On average around 500 Taliban insurgents are killed or captured every three months, a toll that is having an increasingly detrimental impact on their operational effectiveness. “For the first time since 2006 we have seen the level of insurgent attacks drop off,” explained Gen Petraeus. “This is contrary to the intelligence assessment that we would see a 20-30 per cent increase this year.”

Gen Petraeus puts the reduction in insurgent activity down to the extra 80,000 troops – American, Afghan and other Nato forces – that are now contributing to the mission. He also points out that nearly 2,400 former Taliban fighters have agreed to lay down their weapons and join the reconciliation process.

But he is the first to concede that the campaign remains a long way from achieving the dramatic changes that ended the insurgency in Iraq four years ago.

“It has not yet achieved what we achieved in Iraq,” he said. “It has not yet set off the chain reaction among mid-level fighters who realise they are fighting for a cause they cannot win.”

If, as Gen Petraeus suggests, the surge strategy in Afghanistan is working then surely, I suggest, President Barack Obama was wrong to order the withdrawal of 30,000 U.S. troops next summer, which will conveniently take place just before the presidential election?

Gen Petraeus if far too wily a political operator to be drawn on the subject, insisting that the 2014 deadline for ending overall combat operations remains achievable. After he formally retires from the U.S. Army at the end of next month Gen Petraeus will take up a new position as Director of the CIA, where he will be responsible for overseeing America’s global intelligence-gathering operation. This is no time to pick a quarrel with his commander-in-chief over Afghan strategy.

Indeed, looking to his future role, he has nothing but praise for his president’s handling of the operation last May that resulted in the elimination of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind al-Qaeda’s global terrorist network.

It was, says Gen Petraeus, a “gutsy” decision that has dealt a decisive blow against al-Qaeda’s operation. “This operation was a huge success. Osama bin Laden was not only an iconic figure for al-Qaeda, he was also a very effective fund-raiser. Now that he is dead al-Qaeda has lost the most important part of its brand.”

But even with bin Laden out of the way he insists that the pressure needs to be maintained on the al-Qaeda network to prevent a recurrence of the September 11 attacks in 2001 which provoked America into a decade-long war against Islamist terrorism. And he gives an indication of the policy he intends to pursue once he is established at the CIA’s headquarters at Langley, Virginia.

“Al-Qaeda is a network and it needs a network of alliances to defeat it,” he explains. The West, he says, must pursue a “whack-a-mole” policy against the terror group. It is no good hitting a group in Pakistan if another group appears in East Africa of Yemen. “You have to hit all the moles at once, and for that you need an effective network,” he says.

He regrets the diplomatic fall-out between Pakistan and the U.S. over the bin Laden operation, and has made it one of his priorities in his new job to repair relations between Washington and Islamabad. “Both sides recognise the importance of the relationship, and we know what happens if we just throw up our hands and walk away. We have been here before with Charlie Wilson’s war, when we turned our back on Afghanistan and Pakistan. We can’t let it happen again.”

Gen Petraeus admits the challenge of taking charge of the CIA at this crucial juncture has softened the blow of hanging up his uniform for the last time, when he will be the guest of honour at a farewell military parade in August. His move to one of Washington’s top jobs has further fuelled rumours that he is planning to run for the White House in 2016. He makes a rare joke when I ask him if nurtures political ambitions? “Yes, I want to run for president,” he replies. “President of Princeton University.”

For the moment, though, he is preparing to commit himself fully to his new job with his customary zeal. He concludes our interview by quoting a remark made by President Theodore Roosevelt. “The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]