In praise of Petraeus

AT the start of his tour of duty as US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus noted that "hard is not hopeless". As he relinquished command on Tuesday after 20 months of slowly turning Iraq away from the possibility of all-out Sunni-Shia civil war, he said Iraq was "still hard but hopeful".

Cautious optimism appears to be an appropriate assessment, heavily qualified by the need for a continuing, strong coalition presence to prevent the gains being reversed...

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