General David Petraeus

A high ranking source has informed me about a 1 hour and 15 minute presentation by General Petraus to senior officers about Iraq. He said our troops need to be more culturally aware, need more interaction with citizens, and need to be diplomat-leaders. He said the war will be won by sergeants, not officers. He said the worst violence is sectarian not terrorist (the exact opposite of what Pres Bush says). He said Al Quada is small but is the primary focus of the Army (lets review that, sectarian violence is the worst, but the Army is focused on a small terrorist unit). Munitions are coming from Iran. The big Iraqi 5 (the main 5 leaders) are having a summit soon - could be reconciliation. The average Iraqis are tiring of the violence - maybe that will lead to reconciliation? He is big supporter of walls - gated community to stop the sectarian violence, however, Iraqis don't like his idea of walls. Problems he identified: need to secure population, maybe with walls, gated communities; Iraqi security is uneven, infiltrated by militias; surge needs more time; troops need language training, even the least amount of arabic helps; time constraints of the forthcoming 2008 election - Nov 2008 is the absolute end of the war; reconciliation is needed between sunni and shiites; finally, the Army needs to report reality. (Now if we can only get Pres Bush to report reality!)One question he didn't answer was about how the American people are detached from military - he didn't answer, but the question is puzzling - my source explained that many career military officers are concerned that American do not realize we are at war - The career army guys know we are, but American public is detached from the all volunteer army. Its not a question of supporting troops, but being unaware of the war. How does the Iraq war affect most Americans? Some of our students have been killed - one young woman (freshman) had her dad killed in a suicide bombing - she dropped out of college, didn't return (I don't blame her - how can a 18yr old woman come to terms with her father burning to death in war, a suicide attack?!) But go to the mall - you see a war? Go shopping - any evidence of us being at war? One of our ROTC officers on campus said he flew back from Afghanistan to Alabama, and he was home the next day - he said it was strange, coming home, everything normal, no evidence of a country at war. His worst memory was some farmers who were blown up in a mine field - he didn't want to talk about it.