David i began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though i had a day job of running a private equity firm. [david reading onscreen text] [inaudible dialogue] david general, thank you very much for coming. Pleasure. Thanks. Great to be with you. Now, you served our country very honorably for quite a while in government. Were gonna talk about that. But now youre in something that i consider a higher calling of mankind, private equity. [all laugh] how do you compare being in the military and leading troops to private equity . Well, im not sure i would agree wholeheartedly with that. Although i feel very privileged to be in the private equity business and also to be active in academia, in speaking, with startups and so forth. I think its pretty hard to top the extraordinary privilege of serving ones country in uniform, particularly if youre leading our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines in combat. Youre very famous for staying in shape. Now, you told me this morning you already exercised an hour and a half this morning. I do an hour and a half a year if im lucky. But we can talk. So youre living in new york right now. When youre in new york, you run around central park every yeah. How hard is that . Six point two miles actually. And do people recognize you, and they say . Not as much when youre running. If you wear sunglasses and a hat, you can generally run unimpeded and unrecognized. Folks are very kind to me walking the streets. Can i actually just ask though if the veterans in this audience would please stand up so that we can recognize you and thank you for what youve done for our country while in uniform . Veterans. Thank you very much. [all applauding] okay. Okay. Now, david. David, i have often said that those who have served, particularly the post9 11 generation, all of whom are volunteers, all raised their right hand, took an oath at a time of war, knowing that they would likely be asked to deploy to a combat zone. And ive described them as americas new greatest generation, something that actually tom brokaw shouted in my ears after he saw our soldiers in the first year in iraq when i was privileged to be the commander of the 101st Airborne Division up in mosul, and he saw all that they were doing, the myriad tasks. Everything from combat to helping rebuild cities that had been damaged during the war, looting or. All of these different tasks. And he said, you know, that world war ii crowd was the greatest generation, but surely the young men and women weve seen today are americas new greatest generation. And i very much believe in that. All right. Well, lets talk about how you came into the military. Your father was a dutch sea captain. Petraeus yes. Uhhuh. David and he met your mother who was from brooklyn. Petraeus yup. David and they met at a Church Service or church social. Petraeus yup, mmhm. Yup. David and he later stayed here during world war ii yes. And became a commander of a u. S. Merchant marine ship. During the war he sailed with the u. S. Merchant marine. Long war. Because they all signed on, i think it was in 39, when the nazis overran holland, they couldnt go their ship couldnt go back to rotterdam, so they came to the United States. So you grew up in new york city or. . No, about 50 miles north of here. About seven miles north of west point, in fact. I could actually run home from west point, to and from. David so when you were growing up, you. What was your nickname growing up . Petraeus peaches. I an announcer at the Little League game couldnt pronounce it. The first time i came to bat as a 9yearold, i said [stuttering] peaches, and that sort of stuck. And that followed me for quite a all the way through my time at west point, in fact. There was a woman in or a girl at the laundry who had been a High School Friend of mine doing that as a summer job, and she would send me notes in the laundry that youd send to and from every week. And some upperclassman opened it up, and, you know, it said dear peaches, and so. So it stuck on you. It jumped to west point. It jumped the air gap to west point. How did you get an appointment to west point . You seemed you were qualified. Good athlete, i assume a good scholar, but somebody has to call a member of congress to get you in. Well, you just make an application, you, you know, write your congressman, and the congressman nominates you and i mean, its obviously a competitive process. Suppose you hadnt gotten in, where would you have gone . Colgate. I had a full ride there for soccer and academics. David ever thought how your life would be different had you gone there . Petraeus not only did i think about it, i almost at the end of two years, at west point we had this spectacular summer where i was up in Alaska Mountain climbing, glaciers, rivers and so forth, first in a training course, then with an actual unit. So this was our summer training. And then i went down to los angeles, and a friend of mine who lived in the hills out over there looking over in los angeles, and. Had such an extraordinary experience. I decided, you know should i really go back to west point for the remaining years, or should i enjoy more of this . In the end, i went back, obviously. At west point did you play on the soccer team . I was on soccer team and a skier. You also were a scholar, graduated near the top of your class. So when you graduated, did you decide you wanted to make the military your career . I just wasnt sure, i think. You know, its. I what was interesting is of all things at west point, i was in the premed program, and i just i love that particular body of academic inquiry. But i think it was also that it was the highest academic peak to scale. And it was sort of known as the toughest. All of a sudden, i found myself in the senior year with this with an actual slot in the program. And i realized at that time i wasnt absolutely certain that i truly wanted to be a doctor. I just wanted to sort of climb that mountain. So then i picked infantry instead. And i had a wonderful, wonderful experience. You got married just a few weeks after you graduated to the daughter of the commandant of the west point. Actually, the superintendent is the overarching guy. Okay. So wasnt that kind of . A threestar general. It was a strange blind date, i must say, when i found out. But it wasnt nerveracking . Youre dating the superintendents daughter. Wasnt that complicated . We tried to do it clandestinely for a while. That was not very successful. All right. I took a lot of flack for that, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Theres even a. Theres a particular generals march that they play at parades that go. [scatting] and one of my classmates i was on the brigade staff, so we were a little away from the crowd. One of my classmates would sing, my soninlaw my soninlaw [scats] so, yeah, i took a little flack. So you graduated and you went into the infantry. And you were working your way up, and then there were two inciden that occurred where you almost lost your life, severely damaged. Petraeus yeah. David not in combat. Petraeus pretty aggressive live fire exercise. In maneuver, live fire exercise, very aggressive. Live grenades, supporting machine gun fire, and all the rest of that. We were following in fact, general keane, who was a onestar general, ultimately the vice chief of staff of the army, fourstar, was with me when we were walking behind the soldiers. One of them knocked out a bunker, spun out of it, tripped, fell down, and we think as he did, he probably squeezed cause you tense up when youre about to take a blow. And a round m16 round went through my chest, and so luckily it went over the a in petraeus rather than the a in army. David so. So, what happened . You had a bullet in there then where you know well, i. You know, obviously medics start working on you. Interestingly, shock sets in, and i initially said, hey, guys, dont worry. Just go ahead, do a quick afteraction review, figure out what went wrong and drive on. And they were sort of all rolling their eyes. And so they get an iv running, you get a medevac aircraft in, and they pick me up. Keane went with me, held my hand all the way, went into the hospital. And in fact, it had nicked an artery but not severed it. If it severed it, youd bleed out. Youre finished very quickly. So as the one of the times, when someone turned to me and said a doctor said, this is really going to hurt. And he took a scalpel and cut an x in my side right down to the ribs, pulled it back, and shoved a plastic tube right into the lung to try to get suction so that the fluid is draining, and it was. And that really is what, i think, saved my life. And then i was put back in a helicopter, flown down to vanderbilt medical center. And of all people, they called in, uh, the surgeon on call that day was bill frist. Dr. Bill frist. And he came in later, of course, the majority leader of the senate. And some people have jokingly said yeah, petraeus was dying to meet bill frist. [all laugh] [chuckles] and he so he he did thoracic surgery, and i was out of the hospital wow. In about five or six days. And to get out of the hospital they didnt want you to leave that soon. So you showed them you could do pushups. You did 50 pushups to make sure that they knew you were okay. Is that right . Its the only time ive ever stopped at 50, david. No. No, i mean heh. [all laughing] okay. Ive never gotten to 50. I uh. So yeah. No, look, i wanted to get out of there. And i was you know, i things were fine. No reason to keep hanging around. I was doing laps around the hospital. Id put all my tubes in a wheelchair and push it around. I think it was driving them crazy, so. So the other incident was you were skydiving yup. And your parachute didnt quite work, i guess, and you broke your pelvis. What is that like . Is that lifedefining as well . It was horrific. That was actually worse in terms of pain because it fractured front and rear. And your body is literally in two parts. And anything that touches and i had to there we i rode an ambulance all the way in, and every single crack in the street, not just bump, was agony. And they get you in there. I mean, they can use morphine, they can do everything, and it still does not completely dull the pain. I remember, someone would just touch a sheet and it was and so then they operate once the swelling is down sufficiently, they go in and they put a in the front, they try to put it all back together, put a plate over the front, screws in it, and then big screws in the back. Did you ever skydive after that, or. . Not sky i did parachute military parachute after that. Okay. The first one, that was into a lake. And the idea was, you know, if i broke apart when the parachute opened, that at least id land in water, not on land, and but it turned out fine. I think its probably stronger than it was before, although not as quite as flexible. But you wouldnt do skydiving now . I was told by the army. General keane, in fact, who was by then a fourstar, he said dave, no more skydiving. I said, okay. You know, you give me a Division Command and ill quit skydiving. Okay. So they gave you a command yeah. I was very privileged. And you had a number of important jobs in the military, but then ultimately, a decision was made by president bush to invade iraq, and you became a commander there, and you went over there as the first part of the military petraeus yeah. That went into that. It was supposed to be relatively quick. When did you realize, this isnt gonna be as easy as we had thought . Petraeus well, first of all, we did actually, in a matter of weeks, topple the regime. Although there was stiffer fighting along the way in various points. And certainly what was predicted by a variety of different folks prior to the invasion, which was that, you know, the iraqi units were all gonna surrender and come over to our side, and then theyd help us establish order and so forth did not prove out. There was tough fighting along the way. And it wa i had this nagging sense fairly early on, probably certainly in the first week, once that dust storm blew through and i had rick atkinson, the Washington Post reporter, pulitzerprize winner, riding in the back of my humvee, and i remember turning to him at one point and asked, you know tell me how this ends . cause im not sure this is gonna go according to script. The idea that were just gonna topple saddam and his sons and his few henchmen, and then everybody else will stay in place and there will be a little bit of a political negotiation, and well hand it over to them obviously proved misguided. Do you think it wouldve been different had we not decided to get rid of the entire saddam army and the debaathification process . These were these were huge mistakes. We used to have a question on the Operation Center wall when i was a Division Commander in other positions, and it asked will this Operation Take more bad guys off the street than it creates by its conduct . And the same is true of policies. And the fact is that firing the military without telling them what their future was. Again, youre going to have to demobilize at some point, it was a jobs program for generals and cronies and so on. But nonetheless, you cant fire them and not tell them what their future is. They all went took weapons home, so we now had basically riots on the streets for five weeks until they finally announced the stipend program. Enormous damage. And then the debaathification so the baath party, which used to run the country this meant youre taking tens of thousands of people, and theres no reconciliation process agreed. So youve just created tens of thousands of people whose incentive is to oppose in iraq, rather than they support that party. Now, you led the effort to get control of mosul. Is that right . We were in baghdad, which is where wed been told we were going to end up. And then all of a sudden, we got this sort of emergency order to get up to mosul. Its out of control. Theres a small u. S. Unit up there. Thered been 17 civilians killed in responding to a riot. So within about 36 hours or so, we did one of the biggest air assaults in history up to mosul. We had 250 helicopters or so in the 101st airborne. We immediately blanketed the city with our soldiers. Just literally pushed right into the city, calmed it down, stopped the looting and all the rest of that, and then gradually took control of it. And then we actually had an interim government up there within two weeks of arriving. It was going pretty well, actually. Things were moving along, and then this double whammy of firing the military without telling them their future and firing down the level four of the baath Party Without a reconciliation process created a huge number of enemies within iraq. David you may remember, i think early on in the war, it was thought that shock and awe would be all that was necessary. All we had to do was show a lot of missiles going off, and that was gonna be the end of the war. That concept doesnt really work. That didnt completely succeed. I think it did impose a little awe here and there, but, again, there were some folks certainly fighting, shooting at us. And we had casualties and lost heavy equipment and everything else. When president bush decided to invade iraq, in part it was because of the theory that they had weapons of mass destruction. Right. And that information came from the cia, among other places. When you became the head of the cia, did you ever dig into it and say where did you get that information from . You know, i didnt dig into that as much as i dug into some other issues, such as the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, something which ive personally opposed, for two reasons. One is i think its wrong. I think its beyond the, if you will, International Law and Geneva Convention and so forth. Number two is i just dont think its as effective as the socalled proponents of it believe it. You know, as jim mattis, again, colorfully said, you know give me a beer and a cigarette, and ill get more information than by waterboarding. Its not quite that simple, but to put it, i guess, more simply, it would be that you wanna become the detainees best friend in detention. The interrogator does. And i say this having been the commander who oversaw the holding of more detainees in iraq than at any other time, 27,000 of them. So we have some experience with what works with detainees, and treating them humanely while still eliciting information from them is the way to go about it. And then the most in afghanistan as well. Now, you had never before had people working for you directly who were killed in combat. Now, this experience, had people work for you. Yeah. Yeah. What was that like to have the command of people who were dying . Its you know, its. Its a chilling experience, actually, the first time. I remember the radio call when our first soldier was killed. And it takes the wind out of you. I remember hearing when a sister unit, the 3rd infantry division, which really spearheaded the fight, along with the marine division, up to baghdad on the ground with tanks and bradley fighting vehicles. I remember the radio call. I was monitoring their net because we were all fighting together. And hearing that theyd had a couple of heavy vehicles blown up right. Its a chilling. And then i remember the first suicide bomber report. And this is one where you realize, you know how in the world do you deal with an enemy whos willing to blow himself up to take you with him . Its a very, very difficult problem all right. You were there for how long before you were sent back to the states . That was about a yearlong deployment. Right. And then i was back for a couple of months, and was asked to go back over very quickly to do an assessment for a couple of weeks for the commander of Central Command and the secretary of defense of the Iraqi Security force effort. Came back, reported out to secretary rumsfeld, and he said, great report. Now, go back, change out of your division, and get back over there and do what youve recommended that we do. So have you thought if you hadnt written a good report, maybe you wouldnt have been sent back or . Never thought that . Secretary rumsfeld had an interesting way of giving rewards. Because later on so that was the next tour was a 15andahalf month tour. I remember in the final week or so, he came over and he was literally patting me on the back. And i thought, this is really sort of nice. And then he said, and, you know, on the way home, i want you to come through afghanistan. I said, you know, thats not exactly the direct line between two points here. But so we did an assessment over there for him on the way home, actually. You finished your second tour of duty in iraq, yeah. You went back to United States. Yeah. Then we had about 15 months at fort leavenworth, kansas, commanding the combined arms center which has a number of different hats that an i