Lionization of David Petraeus

"And win Petraeus did.  Not in Afghanistan, of course.  That war grinds on without end.  But the Teflon general somehow emerged from it all with people talking about him as a future presidential contender.  Looking back at Petraeus’s successes, one understands just what a feat this was.  Statistics show that Petraeus never actually pacified Mosul, which has now been under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS) for years.  The army Petraeus helped build in Iraq crumbled in the face of that same force which, in some cases, was even supported by Sunni fighters Petraeus had put on the U.S. payroll to make The Surge appear successful.  Indeed, Petraeus had come to New America’s New York headquarters to answerone question in particular: “What will the next president’s national security challenges be?”  Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan: precisely the set of groups he had fought, places he had fought in, or what had resulted from his supposed victories. "