Petraeus graduated from West Point in 1974 and went into the infantry. He earned his Ranger tab, and passed through a variety of academic programs and posts, working through degrees at the Command and General Staff College and Princeton before teaching at his undergraduate alma mater. He also was given a number of commands, and by the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he was a two-star general commanding the 101st Airborne Division. For much of the next year, he oversaw the city of Mosul and focused on the kinds of nation-building projects that would become part and parcel of the counterinsurgency strategy that would become the cornerstone of his command legacy. After his post in Mosul, he oversaw the U.S. training mission in Iraq.
Here Petraeus, having been promoted to lieutenant general, speaks with Brigadier General Abdul Kadir Jassim of the Iraqi Army on June 10, 2004 in a helicopter above Tikrit, Iraq.
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