Two decades ago, General David Petraeus, the man charged with winning America's second war in Iraq, wrote a thesis for his PhD in international relations at Princeton.Its 328 pages were an intense study of the legacies of a war that had stretched the US military, riven world opinion and deeply divided American political life. It was entitled The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam. In one passage, the young officer took on the idea that public opinion in the US could not abide a military quagmire. 'Vietnam was an extremely painful reminder that, when it comes to intervention, time and patience are not American virtues in abundant supply,' Petraeus wrote in 1987. Now Petraeus is delivering another survey of an unpopular, divisive war. Only this time his audience is not a college tutor: it is the whole world.
In less than two weeks, Petraeus will appear before the US Congress and deliver a report into the progress of the 'surge', the military strategy launched by President George W Bush that was designed to win the Iraq war. It has been billed as a 'make or break' moment that could either trigger the beginnings of an American withdrawal or build on the first signs of real military success. And it will be scoured anxiously in London, where the political debate about the timing of a withdrawal of the remaining British forces is gathering pace.
In America, both sides of the political divide are breathless in anticipation. The Democrats await any hint of criticism. The Republicans have prepared a PR barrage of 'good news' to try to turn public opinion back behind the war effort. White House officials hail Petraeus as a 'warrior scholar' who finally gets what is needed to win in Iraq. They see him as a man who can save the Bush presidency.
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