General Petraeus interviewed by Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt bills his show as "The best in political talk," and it's hard to argue. He brings in heavyweight guests from all over the political spectrum (favoring the right, to be sure), and engages them in conversations that compel something better than the soundbites we usually see with media interviews.

Tonight Hewitt aired an interview with General David Petraeus (the interview actually occurred earlier in the day).

HH: Welcome, General. You took over command of the multinational forces in February of this year, February 10. In the past five months, how have conditions in Iraq changed?

DP: Well, obviously, we have been surging our forces during that time. We have added five Army brigade combat teams, two Marine battalions, and a Marine expeditionary unit, and some enablers, as they’re called. And over the last month, that surge of forces has turned into a surge of offensive operations. And we have achieved what we believe is a reasonable degree of tactical momentum on the ground, gains against the principal near-term threat, al Qaeda-Iraq, and also gains against what is another near-term threat, and also potentially the long term threat, Shia militia extremists as well. As you may have heard, that today, we announced the capture of the senior Iraqi leader of al Qaeda-Iraq, and that follows in recent weeks the detention of some four different emirs, as they’re called, the different area leaders of al Qaeda, six different foreign fighter facilitators, and a couple dozen other leaders, in addition to killing or capturing hundreds of other al Qaeda-Iraq operatives.

(click here to read more)

Here's how Hewitt later summarized the interview:

Read the whole thing for a broad assessment of conditions in Iraq, one that completely contradicts assertions that the surge has failed.
(HughHewitt.townhall.com)