I’ll do my own research, as I don’t have much faith in yours. If you claim he was “there”, fine. Perhaps he was. If you say he was the operational commander, then we have another issue. Being in theatre doesn’t make one the person running the show.
Good. I will get back to paying clients! ;-)
To get you started, here are some hints...
If you claim he was “there”, fine. Perhaps he was.
Gen Petraeus was a 2-star general at the start of the war. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division during the initial drive right up through the time it was in Mosul. Rick Atkinson described this (albeit poorly) in In the Company of Soldiers, which was published in 2005...which is before 2006.
If you say he was the operational commander, then we have another issue. Being in theatre doesn’t make one the person running the show.
Was he ever running anything before he was running anything? Well, Newsweek seemed to think so, as it slobbered all over him...
I suggest that, in addition to the published sources, you talk with the troops that were there in Ninewah both while he was there and those who had to clean up the mess he left. I've done so.
My original comment indicated that he'd learned from his early mistakes, but from what I am reading now about his performance in Afghanistan, perhaps not entirely. He's evidently still out there funding the enemy by passing out taxpayer $$$ left and right.