By Matthew Kredell
In light of Veterans Day, retired four-star General David H. Petraeus discussed the meaning of military service and sacrifice in America with USC University Professor and former California state librarian Kevin Starr at a Nov. 3 event hosted by the Office of the Provost.
Petraeus, a Judge Widney Professor at USC with a joint appointment at the USC Price School of Public Policy, commanded coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan during his 37 years in the Army. Following his military service, he was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
USC Price co-sponsored the discussion, held at the university’s Town and Gown ballroom, along with USC Sports Properties, the Master of Business for Veterans Program at USC Marshall and the California Resources Corporation.
“In a few days, our country will pause and observe Veterans Day, honoring those women and men who have served in the U.S. military,” Mark Todd, USC Vice Provost for Academic Operations, said in his introduction. “Military service during war time is one of many forms of public service in America, yet it’s distinct in that the scope and scale of sacrifice can often be transformative for the individual involved in both physically visible and unseen ways.”
For more than an hour, Petraeus and Starr discussed military leadership, the war in Iraq, the threat of ISIS and the importance of helping veterans transition into civilian life. Then Petraeus answered audience questions. The event was part of a several-day visit to campus by Petraeus in which he met with faculty and students.
Starr opened the conversation by noting that the cost of military victory and return to civilian life for veterans is very much on the minds of most Americans these days after 14 years of continuous war, the longest such period in the country’s history.
Given Starr’s background as a historian and Petraeus’ wealth of military knowledge, the talk turned to Petraeus’ favorite military commander, Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War.
“The country has been fortunate at different times to have the right man or woman at the right place at the right time, starting with the founding fathers,” Petraeus said. “I think that Grant emerges as the man of the hour in the Civil War, certainly in uniform, noting that Abraham Lincoln was extraordinary above all.”
Petraeus is a proponent of getting the big ideas right, and stressed that Grant excelled at that, even though in civilian life he actually failed at most endeavors and ended up financially strapped before getting his memoirs published with the help of Mark Twain.
“If you ask what are the attributes that really set him apart, I think the single biggest one and what we have always looked for in senior commanders is clarity of vision at the level of their command,” Petraeus said. “He had clarity of vision at the tactical level, at the operational level and then at the strategic level.”
When the discussion turned to Iraq, Petraeus explained how the application of the counterinsurgency doctrine he developed – known as the Surge – reduced violence by 90 percent and not only defeated but destroyed al Qaeda in Iraq. However, he said, the subsequent sectarian actions taken by Iraq’s former prime minister undid all the progress.
“That created fertile fields for the planting of the seeds of extremism, al Qaeda in Iraq reemerges as the Islamic State, drifts over into Syria and draws all kinds of power and weapons and money, then sweeps back into Iraq as a conventional force,” Petraeus said.
He stated that the U.S. has a strategic imperative to defeat ISIS, with implications affecting security globally.
“The Islamic State is a threat not just to the region, not just to Europe, it’s a threat to us as well,” Petraeus said. “We’ve already seen ISIS-inspired events in the United States. They’re very good in social media. This is a huge difference between them and al Qaeda.”
In speaking about veterans transitioning to civilian life, Petraeus mentioned the work the global investment firm at which he is a partner, KKR, has done in its “Vets@Work” initiative to encourage the hiring of more than 35,000 veterans across its private equity portfolio companies.
Petraeus also encouraged USC to bring every school at the university into the Yellow Ribbon Program to supplement the G.I. Bill so that all the academic expenses of veterans are covered.
“The point I have continually made is that we don’t just want our vets to be able to find a job, we want them to find a career,” Petraeus said. “A lot of that has to do with the employer really investing in the vet. For the infantryman, tanker or artilleryman, there’s not necessarily a direct corollary with the U.S. civilian economy, but they bring unique experiences, extraordinary values, discipline, leadership, teamwork and cool under fire, literally.
“We owe our vets not just a job but we ought to invest in them as well,” he added.