In the military, as in politics and in business, connections count.
And, by most accounts, one connection that impacted the war in Iraq for the better was the friendship between two soldiers, Gen. David H. Petraeus and retired Gen. John M. “Jack” Keane.
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Petraeus, who stepped down last week as commanding general of coalition troops in Iraq, is widely praised for his leadership following the so-called “surge” of 21,500 additional U.S. troops in Iraq that began in early 2007.
But Keane also deserves credit, analysts say, for his early advocacy of the surge.
The former Army vice chief of staff, Keane retired in 2003 after a 37-year career. But even though he was retired, he remained actively involved in the debate over the conduct of the Iraq war.
He visited Iraq often. And as he saw conditions there deteriorate, he became a strong advocate for sending in additional troops.
In December 2006, Keane and Francis W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, published a pro-surge report entitled, Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were in favor of deploying fewer troops in Iraq. Nonetheless, Keane persisted, and Bush eventually took his side.
“Gen. Keane helped conceive the new Iraq war strategy and then sell it to the White House,” Matthew Kaminski wrote in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. “He advised on its implementation, visiting Iraq often and reporting back to the president and vice president.”
As Bob Woodward documents in the recently published The War Within, Keane also championed Petraeus as the person to lead the surge.
“There is no other candidate that would be as good,” Woodward told Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Throughout 2007, Bush continued to call on Keane, Woodward reports, and the retired general served as the president’s back-channel link to Petraeus.
Woodward writes that Keane first met Petraeus in the late 1980s when Keane held the rank of colonel and Petraeus was a major.
In September 1991, the two men were watching an infantry drill when an accidental shot from an M-16 seriously wounded Petraeus.
Keane stayed at Petraeus’ side as he was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Nashville.
Dr. William H. “Bill” Frist Jr., a thoracic surgeon who later became majority leader of the Senate, successfully operated on Petraeus.
At the end of next month, Petraeus takes over as commander of the U.S. Central Command, having responsibility for operations in the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia.
Keane continues to advise the Pentagon as a member of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee.
He’s on the corporate boards of MetLife, Inc., the insurance company, and General Dynamics Corp., the military contractor.
Keane is also the co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC, a private equity firm, and he’s a national security analyst for ABC News.
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