If General David Petraeus is feeling the heat as he readies his momentous Iraq War report to Congress, it is hard to tell by the cool confidence with which he discusses the toughest mission of his career.
Rarely in recent history have the words of one general loomed so large in determining the direction of a war.
Two things in particular give his coming September assessment and testimony to Congress great weight: He is viewed as the master of counterinsurgency strategy, having written just last year the military's manual on how it should be done. And secondly, President Bush has repeatedly said he would count on the judgment of his top Iraq commander.
"I will rely on General Petraeus to give me his recommendations for the appropriate troop levels in Iraq," Bush said last month when pressed on the timing of when Americans might start coming home - five years into the war and 18 months before he leaves the White House.
"I'm going to wait to see what David has to say. I'm not going to pre-judge what he may say. I trust David Petraeus' judgment," the president added.
Petraeus is keeping his counsel close, five weeks before he heads to Capitol Hill to pass judgment on the Iraq War strategy - with the direction of the conflict hanging in the balance.
It's not easy to unnerve a guy who was shot in the chest in a training accident at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, earlier in his career, and who has spent a combined three years in Iraq in three different tours of duty. He led the 101st Airborne Division, with 17,000 soldiers, in the initial US invasion in March 2003.
In February he became the top US commander in Iraq, replacing General George Casey.
In an interview in late July in his office at the US Embassy, Petraeus betrayed no sign of anxiety, except perhaps a hint of worry that he might tip his hand too early, thus opening himself to challenge from critics before he has fully armed himself with credible arguments for why the buildup is working.
Clearly, he believes it is working. But he is not ready to say that too expansively. He speaks hopefully, in an understated way, of making more security gains this year with the US troop buildup.
Nor is he willing to go far in discussing the question many in Washington are asking: When can a drawdown of US troops begin?
"We haven't hard-and-fast determined when to do that just yet," he says.
His every word will be scrutinized when he delivers his assessment in mid-September. He will appear for testimony with Ambassador Ryan Crocker, his diplomatic counterpart in Baghdad. They are expected to explain the progress and problems with the counterinsurgency strategy that Petraeus began to implement when he arrived in February - both security and political.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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