Our Man in Mosul
By Joshua Hammer ’ Princeton 79

David Petraeus got an Iraqi city running again after the war, but tougher challenges may lie ahead
 

Tailored Uniform, A Swagger, And Colt 45

On a crisp November day in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus *87 touches down in a Blackhawk military helicopter in a cloud of dust, and hustles across the landing strip for an inspection tour. Arms bent at the elbows and swinging forward and back, nine-millimeter pistol fitted snugly in a black leather holster strapped to his thigh, the 50-year-old commander is a picture of jaunty confidence as he sweeps past welcoming U.S. soldiers toward a gravel parade ground.

Petraeus Is A Sensitive Warrior

Beneath Petraeus’s self-assured exterior, however, lies a deepening sense of concern. Just one day earlier, Iraqi insurgents shot down a Blackhawk helicopter near Tikrit, killing four U.S. soldiers from Petraeus’s division; a few hours later an improvised explosive device blew up beside a passing convoy in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, killing another of his men. After a four-month lull during which Petraeus didn’t lose a single soldier in combat, the Screaming Eagles had suffered five fatalities in the last 24 hours. “To shoot a helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade – that’s not an easy thing to do,” Petraeus tells me as we step back into the chopper after the ceremony. “They’re getting more sophisticated, and they’ve had a bit of luck.”

Joshua Gets To Sit Next To His Moses

After his inspection of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, Petraeus takes me on a helicopter tour of Mosul. As the chopper soars 2,000 feet over the city, well within range of shoulder-fired SAM-7 missiles, he points out the charred remains of the house where “number two and number three” – Qusay and Uday Hussein – were hunted down and killed in a furious gun battle.

 

Another Alan Ladd

Petraeus, who may be the most accessible general in Iraq, admits to a rising degree of frustration with the media. “It’s hugely significant that America’s sons and daughters are dying, but it seems like that’s all that gets reported,” he tells me. “One hundred thousand soldiers are doing incredible things every day.” I ask the general if he remains optimistic about America’s mission in Iraq. “It’s doable,” he says emphatically. “It has to work.”

A 21st Century Caesar

Then he casts another wary look out the Blackhawk window, high above the warrens of the city where Mosul’s insurgents lie in wait.