Gen. Petraeus, the Surge and Iraq

General Petraeus and I

I have intentionally avoided going into a lengthy analysis of how the war is going. Analysis is what I do every day over here. Nonetheless, the recent appointment of General David Petraeus to be the new commander of U.S. Central Command is worth noting.

As the architect of the Surge, General Petraeus is the one man most responsible for the dramatic improvements in security we've realized in Iraq in the last year. I don't think anyone realizes back home just how dramatic the improvements have been. Attacks in the West are down around 80 percent. Violence in many neighborhoods of Baghdad are down 60 percent. Cities like Fallujah, whose very name had become synonymous with violence, gunbattles and death, are now quiet and almost back to normal. Parks are open. The Baghdad Zoo is open. In many areas, the shops and markets are full.

Certainly there are tough times ahead. No one has been more honest about this than Gen. Petraeus, who predicted a few spikes in violence even as the trends were going down. But looking at the situation with all that I know, I have to say that I'm even more of an optimist than the General himself. You see, it's not just that the quantity of violence has gone down, but the quality as well. And most importantly of all, we're winning the battle of hearts and minds. Or, more accurately - the enemy is losing that battle. Their brutal ideology of death and more death has changed many Iraqis.

None of this would have happened without the surge, and that is a credit to General Petraeus. By being elevated to his new position at Central Command, Petraeus now will assume overall authority over both Afghanistan and Iraq, and will be able to take lessons from one war and use them in another.

Lest one think that we're being left in less-capable hands, I can assure you that we're not. Because the right-hand man of General Petraeus - the man who implemented the surge on the ground, so to speak, is taking his place. Gen. Ray Odierno is a more pragmatic, nuts and bolts kind of guy than Gen. Petraeus. When Gen. Petraeus sees a glass half full, Gen. Odierno sees it half empty. But rather than conflict, the two seemed to work well together, with a yin-yang kind of symmetry.

I've worked under both of these men and have seen them in action. Certainly, if I had anything negative to say about my superior officers, I would be silent. But I do not, and I am not. I don't think that there could be a better team to take Iraq to the next level. Their experience, their institutional knowledge, will allow the lessons of the surge - good and bad - to be pushed on towards the finish. Because I read the tea leaves every day, and I can tell you that there will be a few dark days ahead, but the road is clearly downhill from here.

Budge the Stress Dog

I had a great opportunity to meet a local celebrity. I had seen him before on T.V. - I think it was CNN or FoxNews - but had never met him in person.

No, it wasn't Toby Keith, although he was here the same day. In fact, as one soldier put it, this celebrity may possibly be bigger than Toby Keith.

He's Budge, the Stress Dog.

Or, to be more accurate, Sgt. First Class Budge, the Stress Dog.

It all came about when some medical folks over at the Combat Stress hospital started thinking about ways to ease the strain on soldiers. Taking their clue from hospitals which had noticed the calming effects of pets on nursing home patients or others in need, they hit on the idea of getting their own stress dog.

Budge - as the TV broadcast explained - goes all over this base and others, visiting the troops. Being petted. And just being a dog. A tough life it must be. And so it happened that a small medical awareness display was set up over at the palace, and budge came along. Walking through the hall, I spotted him and just had to come and say hi. I was star-struck. Celebrities just don't get any cooler than Budge.

So, like an awkward teenager, I begged to get a photograph, and his handler agreed. After that, I played a bit with Budge - tossing his chew toy and playing tug-of-war with it. He was an excited and friendly dog, and as I went back to work, I think I could verify that the "Budge effect" was not just a myth, for I felt no stress at all.