Excerpts of Gen. Petraeus on NBC's "Nightly News"

NBC NEWS' BRIAN WILLIAMS INTERVIEWS GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS ON THIS EVENING'S "NIGHTLY NEWS"

NEW YORK - April 10, 2008 - NBC News' Brian Williams talked with General David Petraeus after two days of Congressional hearings on the progress of the Iraq war in an interview that will air this evening on "Nightly News."

Below are select quotes from Williams' interview, if quoting outlets must credit "NBC News." A full transcript of this evening's "Nightly" and the interview in its entirety will be posted after the broadcast on www.nightlynews.msnbc.com.

RE. Five years ago:
Williams: Five years ago yesterday, the statue came down. Remember the biggest problem 5 years ago yesterday was do we put an American flag on it, do we take it off. Do we help them taking it down by pulling a rope from a tank transporter or do we let them pull at it all day. And it was still new territory, physically and metaphorically. Yet there was joy in downtown Baghdad. At that very spot where the statue was, it's now under curfew. Is there simple way to distill it General, what happened in those 5 years.

Petraeus: Well, what happened was there was a point where in some communities the coalition forces were no longers seen as liberators and became occupiers. That certainly has described what has happened in certain areas. Paradoxically, in some of those areas, we have come to be seen as liberators again. We actually reliberated certain communities. In this case, helping them to throw off, again, Al Qaeda Iraq, Sunni extremists organizations that had--that were able to put down roots because of this sense of dispossession and disrespect.

Re. How the war ends:
Williams: Draw me a picture of how this war ends?
Petraeus: Well, what is happening now, is in fact, the drawdown of our forces in a variety of different locations, based on assessments that have been made of the enemy situation, the capabilities of the Iraqi forces, Iraqi governance, and you can then thin out. And I think that is likely, how this will end. It will be a thinning out, there will be some sort of engagement, I'm sure for years and I think we should be realistic about that but I think we should also clearly recognize that that form of engagement will be nowhere near the numbers, nowhere near the cost, and nowhere near the mission profile that we have right now

Re. If his new Commander in Chief calls an end to the war:
Williams: In your job, you give orders, you also take them from your Commander in Chief. And if your commander in chief said "get out," could you carry that out?

Petraeus: Absolutely. Again, we raise our right hand, we swear to support and defend the constitution of the United States. One of the principles enshrined in the way we do business in the United States is civilian control of the military. There is also responsibility on the part of a commander, of course, to discuss what risks are associated with various courses of action. And I firmly believe, whoever it is, that is elected in the fall, will sit down and look a the various interests, try to figure out, the competing risks because there are risks beyond Iraq.

Re. His political future:
Williams: General, will you ever hold political office in this country?
Petraeus: Never. And I've tried to say that on a number of occasions. Some folks have reminded me of a country western song that says "what part of no, don't you understand?"