retired army colonel peter mansoor was his executive officer in 2007 and 2008 during the surge in iraq. he's now professor of military history at ohio state university. kimberly kagan is the president of the institute for the study of war, a washington think tank. she was last in afghanistan in march. and greg jaffe is a military reporter for the "washington post." he's also co-author a book that profiled general petraeus: "the fourth star: four generals and the epic struggle for the future of the united states army." thank you all three for being with us. greg jaffe, to you first. remind us what general petraeus' leadership style is. >> well, you know, he's very good politically. i mean, one of the things i think he did a great job with and i think pete mansoor can talk about this in depth is establish a relationship with p.m. maliki that wasn't always a comfortable and happy relationship. but i think he was able to push maliki, along with the u.s. ambassador there, ryan rocker, to really do things that were both in the iraqis interest and in the broader u.s. interest. so that's criti