110 HRES 1427 IH: Congratulating General David Howell U.S. House of Representatives 2008-09-11 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1427 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 11, 2008 Mr. McCotter (for himself, Mr. Boustany, Mr. Brown of South Carolina, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Fortuño, Mr. King of New York, Mr. Lamborn, and Mr. Linder) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Congratulating General David Howell Petraeus on being appointed Commander of the United States Central Command, and for other purposes.

Whereas, on November 7, 1952, David Howell Petraeus was born in Cornwall, New York; Whereas in 1974, General Petraeus graduated at the top of his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he received a commission in the United States Army infantry; Whereas following commissioning and successful completion of Ranger School, as a distinguished graduate, General Petraeus was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat team; Whereas in 1983, General Petraeus earned the General George C. Marshall Award as the top graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College; Whereas in 1985, General Petraeus earned his master’s degree and in 1987 his doctorate degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University; Whereas from 2001 to 2002, General Petraeus effectively served a 10-month tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of Operation Joint Forge where he was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Stabilization Force and the Deputy Commander of the United States Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force—Bosnia; Whereas in 2003, General Petraeus successfully commanded the 101st Airborne Division, during which he led the Screaming Eagles in combat throughout the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom; Whereas in June 2004, General Petraeus was appointed the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq which was responsible for training, equipping, and mentoring Iraq's growing Army, Police, and other security forces; Whereas from 2005 until February 2007, General Petraeus served as Commanding General, United States Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where, under his intellectual and academic leadership, he rewrote the military’s counterinsurgency manual, which presents new and innovative concepts, tactics, techniques, and procedures for executing counterinsurgency doctrine for the post-9/11 world; Whereas in January 2007, as part of a revised Iraqi strategy, General Petraeus was appointed as Commanding General of Multi-National Force—Iraq; Whereas, on February 10, 2007, General Petraeus took over command of the Multi-National Force—Iraq and oversaw the predeployment planning, training, employment, and execution of strategic surge operations; Whereas as Commander of the Multi-National Force—Iraq, General Petraeus has worked closely with the Government of Iraq to carry out a successful strategy which focused on securing the population and relentlessly pursuing the enemy and taking back the streets for the Iraqi people thereby creating a prodemocratic grassroots movement, in what has become iconically known as an “awakening” among Iraqi citizens; Whereas the successful surge is responsible for attacks plummeting from a daily rate of 160 to 170 before the surge to about 25 to 30 most recently; Whereas as Commander of the Multi-National Force—Iraq, General Petraeus successfully continued to train, equip, and develop Iraq’s security forces to support local security forces and to integrate these forces into the Iraqi Army and Police; Whereas thanks to the success of our United States combat forces during the surge, 70 percent of Iraqi Army battalions are now taking lead in military operations; Whereas due to the success of the surge, United States Armed Forces are able to pull out and hand over security responsibility for cities in 13 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, including the Anbar province, to Iraqi security forces; Whereas in April 2008, General Petraeus was nominated to command the United States Central Command; and Whereas, on July 10, 2008, the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmed General Petraeus as Commander of the United States Central Command by a vote of 95 to 2: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)congratulates General David Howell Petraeus on his well-deserved appointment as Commander of the United States Central Command; (2)appreciates the impact General Petraeus’s visionary counter-insurgency strategy and tactics, including the prioritization of localized reconstruction efforts, had in providing security in Iraq, facilitating Iraqi construction, and advancing the cause of our Nation's victory over the enemy in Iraq; (3)commends General Petraeus for his tireless, prescient, and invaluable leadership of the surge of United States Armed Forces in the war for freedom against terrorism and leaving the citizens of Iraq the opportunity to live in a sovereign, stable, democratic, and free Iraq that is opposed to terrorism; (4)commends and expresses gratitude to the members of the United States Armed Forces on their success and selfless service to defend our liberty and extend liberty to the people of Iraq; and (5)remains committed to honor the sacrifices of our fallen and wounded soldiers by continuing to support the victory of our United States Armed Forces in Iraq and all theaters in our Nation's unsought struggle against terrorism.