Petraeus Interview

Austin Bays conducted a radio interview with General David Petraeus on August 7. You can listen to it or read the transcript here on Pajamas Media. (There's also a short version of excerpts.) The interview includes some very interesting background on:

-- the surge of Iraqi troops. There are an additional 140,000 police and soldiers from the level in early 2007, at the start of the U.S. surge, and continuing to grow, in terms of numbers and of professional capabilities;

-- reform of the Iraqi national police. This included replacing every division commander, every brigade commander, and 75% of the battalion commanders, as well as extensive retraining of the police units;

-- nuts and bolts of successful civil-military cooperation.

Petraeus notes the progress to date, but cautions that the enemy remains 'lethal, resilient and very dangerous.'