And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome to Conversations. I'm very pleased to have with

with me today David Petraeus, our entire general David Petraeus, who was in command, of course in Iraq,

and then in Afghanistan.

Such a long career distinguished public service, I don't even know where to begin this conversation,

but maybe we can begin with Iraq.

You famously took over there and turned it around, the surge.

People thought it couldn't work.

It did work.

I just think people would be fascinated to know how did it happen where where were you how

how do you suddenly go from where were you you were in leavenworth's I was

a three star at Fort Leworth, Kansas overseeing the organization that really was in charge of all

the leader development training, the Command General Staff College, our majors academy, the

scenarios of the Combat Training Centers, doctrine, history,

all these different activities.

It was called the engine of change for our Army, and it was quite a substantial lever

at that time in particular because we knew that the Army had to make overhaul really the whole process of preparing units, individuals and leaders for deployment to Iraq and to Afghanistan.

And that was the year in which we did the counterinsurgency field manual.

I was there for about 15 months, actually.

We did the counterinsurgency field manual. We really

overhauled what was termed the road to deployment, overhauled all of the

courses that were taught to the lieutenants, the captains, the majors, and so forth, the sergeants major, the senior

non-commissioned officers.

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