General Petraeus rightly gets a lot of credit for the ongoing pacification and stabilization of Iraq, but according to Tom Ricks at the Washington Post it was General Raymond Odierno and retired General Jack Keane who initiated the idea of the surge. It was these two men who circumvented the chain of command at the Pentagon and pushed the Bush administration to implement the escalation of forces that was primarily responsible for the present state of affairs.
Anyone interested in the recent history of the Iraq war will find Ricks' article a fascinating read.
RLC