Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in the Middle East, comes to BYU

PROVO — As the commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus used to ask his soldiers a question before they did anything.

"Will this operation take more bad guys off the street than it creates by the way it is conducted?"

If the answer was no, it was time to re-evaluate.

Now a four-star general and leader of U.S. Central Command with its 20 countries and 4.6 million square miles of terrain, Petraeus is responsible for a lot more streets — and tracking down a lot more bad guys.

But his troops aren't just keeping peace on the streets; they're working to keep those streets in one piece.

Since blazing his way into Iraq in 2003 as the leader of the 101st Airborne Division, Petraeus has changed the way the United States fights.

His soldiers are still scouring the desert for insurgents, but they're also rebuilding schools, irrigation systems, oil refineries and youth soccer fields.

They're breaking down enemies while building up countries, brick by brick and ballot by ballot.

And with two successful elections completed and a decrease in violent attacks, it appears to be working in Iraq.

Some observers have already painted Petraeus as a Kevlar-clad hero who salvaged a failed attempt to find weapons of mass destruction and liberated a nation from a despotic ruler.

But others wonder if such praise is premature.

What happens when the last soldier leaves and the tanks roll out?

As the face of the war in Iraq, Petraeus can't go anywhere without being commended or criticized, whether it's to Congress or to Brigham Young University, where he is slated to speak tonight.

He plans to give an update of Central Command activities and the situations throughout the Middle East, but it's unlikely he'll use the word "victory."

Because no one, not even Petraeus, knows how long Iraq can stand on its own.

Push-ups and Ph.D.s

"Petraeus is an anomaly among Army generals," said Tom Ricks, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and contributing editor for Foreign Policy magazine. "Indeed, I would say he has three strikes against him: He likes journalists and politicians, he has a Ph.D. from Princeton, and he had a successful first tour of duty in Iraq. That sets him apart from almost all other Army generals."