Retired United States Army General and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus, spoke at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ Distinguished Speaker Series on February 3.

General Petraeus served in the United States Army for almost four decades, graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1974 and serving in the military until 2011. General Petraeus had major military assignments during the War on Terror, serving as the top General of all American and allied foreign armed forces deployed in Iraq from 2007-2008, commander of the United States Central Command from 2008-2010 (which oversees all US military operations and forces in the Middle East), and the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from 2010-2011.

In 2011, President Obama nominated General Petraeus to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency where he served for over a year until he resigned.

General Petraeus spoke on a variety of topics throughout the speech, but especially focused on the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, recent Russian military posturing towards Ukraine, and the coronavirus.
Petraeus felt that the United States could never achieve a traditional military victory in Afghanistan, rather they could only “handle the situation”. Petraeus cited the fact that most Taliban forces were out of reach of America’s military capabilities and had no modern history of having a strong central government. This meant that no government could likely bring stability to the whole country, especially as Taliban fighters continued to fight against the central Afghan government.

However, Petraeus believed that the United States could keep Afghanistan from falling into Taliban hands by keeping a minimal American military presence (3,500 American soldiers) and retaining some military equipment in the country. As a result, Petraeus strongly disagreed with the American agreement to withdraw all military forces out of the country, as he thought keeping American military forces in the country was a sustainable solution and only emboldened the Taliban to take over. Petraeus noted this did happen and that it created a humanitarian disaster in which Afghanistan’s population currently has few of the basic services needed for survival.

In contrast, Petraeus was more impressed by the Biden administration’s handling of Russian displays of military force on Ukraine’s border. Petraeus commended the Biden administration’s commitment to rallying our allies against any aggressive acts Russia may commit. In addition, Petraeus felt that the Biden administration provided ample warning and communicated to Russia that there would be grave consequences if they were to decide to attack Ukraine. Petraeus notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to be respected on the world stage and is not afraid to use military force to achieve his ends, such as when he deployed Russian military units to Georgia and Syria. Thus, given this evidence, Petraeus warns that Russian aggression against Ukraine is possible and the threat from Russian armed forces to Ukraine should not be underestimated.

Petraeus spoke about the federal government’s response to the coronavirus and his mixed feelings towards the policy. On the one hand, Petraeus felt that the federal government did a great job in allocating funding towards finding a vaccine for the coronavirus and aiding ordinary Americans. However, Petraeus believed that early guidance regarding the coronavirus, especially masks, created muddled messages and allowed for the politicization of the virus. The reaction to this speech was one of deep respect as most of the questions noted General Petraeus’ service and his status as a foreign policy expert. Overall, this was a very intriguing speech as General Petraeus spoke about the many challenges we face as a country and planet.