Iraq Me, Dave Petraeus

General David Petraeus is a details man. Over the course of two hours at Town Hall last night, the former Commanding General in Iraq spat out more names, dates, facts, and figures than we knew what to do with. This is why we have to make an concerted effort to remember a new acquaintance’s name while Petraeus currently serves as the Commander of U.S. Central Command.

As the third speaker in the World Affairs Council’s Global Leadership Series, Gen. Petraeus was charged with giving a brief overview of the military and U.S. foreign policy, which he covered via a dry and information-rich Powerpoint presentation. Petraeus threw a couple jokes about Microsoft into the mix, but that didn’t much lighten the sober conversation at hand, considering that he describes most of what he does in Central Command as "spinning plates." Sure, things may be somewhat better in Iraq, but Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the midst of an increasingly violent downward spiral, and the failed state situation in Somalia ain’t helping the region neither. Petraeus gave his baker’s dozen of counterinsurgency big ideas, as well as helpful tips for maritime workers hoping to avoid pirates (speed up, take evasive action, and for god’s sake, pull up your ladder).

When it came to the brief (thankfully on notecards) audience Q&A, Petraeus was characteristically diplomatic. We haven’t caught Osama Bin Laden due to the terrain he’s hiding in and because "manhunts are tough." The key to good military leadership is being comfortable with being outside your comfort zone and working well within a feedback-looped learning organization (yes, there was a diagram of this). And as to the final question—about the differences between working with the Bush and Obama administrations—what did you expect? The guy’s not going to say, "DUDEZ, my old boss was SO DUMB! I hate that monkey!" No, of course, Petraeus demurred when it came to making any explicit comparisons, but said that the process was good with the Obama administration, and that he believes that pragmatic decisions are being made about the way forward. That’s something, we suppose.