“The tragedy is that political leaders failed so badly at delivering what Iraqis clearly wanted - and for that, a great deal of responsibility lies with Prime Minister Maliki.”

American Army general and CIA director

David Howell Petraeus is a retired United States Army general and former CIA director. He served from 2011 to 2012 as the agency’s fourth director, after a 37-year military career. Before leading the CIA, Petraeus held several senior Army commands. He led U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq as commanding general of Multi-National Force, Iraq, then served as commander of U.S. Central Command and later as commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces, Afghanistan.