A weary Petraeus wary of complacency

BAGHDAD - In the final days of his campaign to bring Iraq under control, General David H. Petraeus sat in his office at the US Embassy here Monday looking drawn, exhausted, and more than a few years older than when he took command 18 months ago.

Petraeus, 55, is preparing to leave Iraq a remarkably safer place than it was when he arrived. Violence has plummeted from its apocalyptic peaks, Iraqi leaders are asserting themselves, and streets that once seemed dead are flourishing with life. The worst, for now, has been averted.

And so in the general's exhaustion comes the glimmer of hope, and also a caveat: Iraq has stepped back from self-destruction, Petraeus said, but the gains are tenuous without an American effort that outlasts his tenure. He leaves next month to assume overall command of US forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Petraeus's run as senior commander in Iraq coincided with the "surge" of US combat forces into Baghdad, in what amounted to a gamble to bring the country under control. The arrival of the 30,000 extra soldiers, deployed to Baghdad's neighborhoods around the clock, allowed the Americans to exploit events that had begun to unfold at roughly the same time: the splintering of Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army; the growing competence of the Iraqi Army; and the about-face by leaders of Iraq's Sunni minority, who stopped opposing the Americans and joined with them against extremist groups.

The surge has worked: The number of attacks against Americans and Iraqis each week has dropped by 80 percent, according to figures Petraeus provided. Civilian deaths, which peaked at more than 100 a day in 2006, have plunged. In July, fewer Americans were killed in Iraq - 13 - than in any month since the war began.

The pressure must remain applied, Petraeus said, and support cannot waver. "Don't take any of this to imply that we think we're anywhere near finished," he said.