Rebuilding Mosul: General Petraeus’ Exercises Mission Command
An example of leadership are the actions of General Petraeus and his process of exercising mission command during the initial movement into Iraq in 2003. Everyone involved played an important role but General Petraeus assumed the most detrimental role as the commander of the entire operation. Commanders are the most significant members in the operations process. Even though staffs execute vital tasks that enhance the efficiency of operations, commanders drive the operations process through understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, leading, and assessing operations (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2012, p. 11). While in command, General Petraeus exercised mission command
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This resulted in the conclusion for the need to establish an interim government comprised of Mosul’s own citizens. Moreover, he figured if the locals could be part of the rebuilding process they would be more inclined to assist. This set the stage for elections to occur, but did not come without criticism from both Iraqi’s and Americans. Some believed that the elections occurred to fast but Colonel Michael Meese, the advisor to General Petraeus made his case by stating, “Do you want to have an 80 percent solution in a month, or wait a year for a 100 percent solution” (Lundberg, 2006, p. …show more content…
He set clear and achievable goals and enabled his subordinate commanders to accomplish his vision. General Petraeus achieved his goal of improving the relationship of the Iraqi people and the United States military while rebuilding the city of Mosul. General Petraeus provided mission command by using mission orders to enable his subordinate leader’s to accomplish the commanders intent. Many of the policies that General Petraeus lead, directed, and assessed are still in place in Mosul