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Word: petraeus (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
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...indeed, a moment of truth in Iraq. "This is a decisive phase," a member of Petraeus' staff told me and began to laugh. "That's one of our favorite jokes. It's always a decisive phase. But this time, I guess you'd have to say, it actually is." Operation Phantom Thunder, the nationwide offensive launched by U.S. and Iraqi troops in mid-June, may well be the last major U.S-led offensive of the war. "We couldn't really call it what it is, Operation Last Chance," says a senior military official. There is widespread awareness among the military...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Operation Last Chance | 6/28/2007 | See Source »

...Petraeus has been careful about claiming success, or even optimism, in the nearly five months since he returned to Baghdad. He has said a military victory isn't possible, that Iraq can be stabilized only through a political solution that honors all sides in the conflict - Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. But his own staff is skeptical that a political deal is still possible. "This is going to be the first Shi'ite-dominated Arab government. Period," a senior military official told me. "And the Shi'ites are not inclined to be generous toward the Sunnis." The fact is, most...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Operation Last Chance | 6/28/2007 | See Source »

...Petraeus is not your old-fashioned, gung-ho, blood-and-guts sort of commander. He's an intellectual, a West Point graduate with a Ph.D. in international relations from Princeton. His record in Iraq has been mixed. He succeeded, for a time, in applying his counterinsurgency tactics in Mosul during the first year of the war, but his highly publicized effort to train the new Iraqi army in 2004 can only be considered a failure. He has successfully led soldiers in combat. And he does have his macho moments, famously challenging his soldiers to push-up contests. But he made...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Operation Last Chance | 6/28/2007 | See Source »

...Unlike Casey, Petraeus seems to have had a moment to seize. A good chunk of the Sunni insurgency has turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the fringe group - it comprises no more than 5% of the insurgency, according to U.S. intelligence estimates - that is responsible for the most spectacular bombings. The anti-Qaeda rebellion began in Anbar, formerly the most dangerous province in the country, an area famously described as "lost" to the terrorists in a Marine intelligence report leaked to the press in 2006. "Actually, the first tentative steps in Anbar were taken in 2005," Petraeus told me over...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Operation Last Chance | 6/28/2007 | See Source »

...well, demanding marriage to the daughters of local sheiks, forcibly recruiting teenagers as suicide bombers and imposing Shari'a law - including a ban on Western dress and smoking. "Last fall Army Colonel Sean MacFarland, the brigade commander in Ramadi, was approached by Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi," Petraeus said. "Several of the sheik's relatives had been killed by al-Qaeda. The story is, MacFarland guaranteed Abdul Sattar's security by putting an M1 tank section in [his] front yard and [a] police station across the street." By mid-March, tribal elements were helping clear al-Qaeda from...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Operation Last Chance | 6/28/2007 | See Source »

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