Complex Farewells

Posted September 14, 2008

David Petraeus, our finest living general, today resigned his command of Multi-National Force Iraq and assumed command of CENTCOM. He is now the commander of two wars, not one.

I admire Petraeus and profiled him here ("David Patraeus, Rock Star General"). I still believe that that he would be an impressive presidential candidate. The current election is the wrong one for him — he still has real wars to win — but I’d love to see him remain in public life, like Dwight Eisenhower did (both Democrats and Republicans recruited Eisenhower to their ticket in 1948 and he turned them both down).

Petraeus is the architect of not only the surge, but of the new combat
doctrine that made it work. If we get out of Iraq (defined as fewer
than 25,000 troops in country) in the next 18 months, it will be
because of Petraeus — as even Barack Obama now tacitly admits.

General Petraeus marked today’s transition with an eloquent farewell letter, which sounded some of the tones of Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address 47 years ago. I reproduce Patraeus’s letter below, with excerpts from Ike’s famous speech in italics.

It is not a perfect mashup: one was a televised speech, the other a letter. Ike was retiring; Petraeus continues to serve. Above all, Eisenhower used his speech to famously warn Americans that the creation of a "military industrial complex" was both necessary and a very dangerous for American politics and liberty, whereas Petraeus thanks his troops for fighting and winning a very different kind of war and a different foe than Ike ever encountered.

Petraeus:

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Civilians of Multi-National Force-Iraq:

It has been the greatest of privileges to have been your commander
for the past 19 months. During that time, we and our civilian and Iraqi
partners have been engaged in an exceedingly complex, difficult, and
important task. And in the face of numerous challenges, we and our
partners have helped bring new hope to a country that was besieged by
extremists and engulfed in sectarian violence.

When I took command of Multi-National Force-Iraq in February 2007, I
noted that the situation in Iraq was hard but not hopeless. You have
proven that assessment to be correct. Indeed, your great work,
sacrifice, courage, and skill have helped to reverse a downward spiral
toward civil war and to wrest the initiative from the enemies of the
new Iraq.

We now stand ten years past the
midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great
nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these
holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and
most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this
pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige
depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and
military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of
world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America’s adventure in
free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to
foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity
and integrity among peoples and among nations.

Any failure traceable to arrogance
or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict
upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.

Together, Iraqi and Coalition Forces have faced determined,
adaptable, and barbaric enemies. You and our Iraqi partners have taken
the fight to them, and you have taken away their sanctuaries and safe
havens. You have helped secure the Iraqi people and have enabled, and
capitalized on, their rejection of extremism. You have also supported
the Iraqi Security Forces as they have grown in number and capability
and as they have increasingly shouldered more of the responsibility for security in their country.

Progress toward these noble goals
is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It
commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a
hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in
purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses
promises to be of indefinite duration.

To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional
and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us
to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of
a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. Only thus
shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course
toward permanent peace and human betterment.

You have not just secured the Iraqi people, you have served them, as
well. By helping establish local governance, supporting reconstruction
efforts, assisting with revitalization of local businesses, fostering
local reconciliation, and conducting a host of other non-kinetic
activities, you have contributed significantly to the communities in
which you have operated. Indeed, you have been builders and diplomats
as well as guardians and warriors.

The progress achieved has been hard-earned. There have been many
tough days along the way, and we have suffered tragic losses. Indeed,
nothing in Iraq has been anything but hard. But you have been more than
equal to every task.

Your accomplishments have, in fact, been the stuff of history. Each
of you should be proud of what has been achieved and of the
contributions you continue to make. Although our tasks in Iraq are far
from complete and hard work and tough fights lie ahead, you have helped
bring about remarkable improvements.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have,
on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the nation well rather
than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the
nation should go forward. So my official relationship with Congress
ends in a
feeling on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much
together.

Your new commander is precisely the right man for the job. General
Ray Odierno played a central role in the progress achieved during the
surge. He brings tremendous skill, experience, and understanding as he
returns to Iraq for a third tour and takes the helm of MNF-I just seven
months after relinquishing command of MultiNational Corps-Iraq. I have
total confidence in him, and I will do all that I can as the commander
of Central Command to help him, MNF-I, and our Iraqi partners to
achieve the important goals that we all share for the new Iraq.

Three days from now, after a half
century of service of our country, I shall lay down the
responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the
authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor…

Like every other citizen, I wish
the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray
that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for
all.

Thank you for your magnificent work here in the "Land of the Two
Rivers." And thank you for your sacrifices-and for those of your
families–during this crucial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I am
honored to have soldiered with you in this critical endeavor.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all
faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs
satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to
the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual
blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy
responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others
will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance
will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of
time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by
the binding force of mutual respect and love.

With great respect and all best wishes

David H. Petraeus
General, United States Army
Commanding