Talk about unsettling. He’s perhaps the most respected active military official in the country, he’s credited with turning the seemingly-lost war in Iraq around, and if there’s one man who can win the war in Afghanistan it’s him. So when he collapses during a hearing, you can understand rattled nerves.

U.S. General David Petraeus, who briefly collapsed during a Senate hearing on the war in Afghanistan Tuesday morning, is alert and doing well, according to reports.

Petraeus, 57, had finished telling Sen. John McCain that he believes the planned 2011 drawdown of U.S. troops remains on track, and McCain was responding when the room fell silent and aides began crowding around the four-star general.

Petraeus, who oversees the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as head of U.S. Central Command, briefly put his head on the table, then rose, appearing dazed. He stood under his own power and was escorted from the room.

Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman, suspended the hearing until Wednesday out of concern for Petraeus’ health.

The good news? He seems to be okay now.

Petraeus himself returned to the room briefly and told the senators he “was feeling a little bit light-headed there.”

“It wasn’t Sen. McCain’s question,” the general added.

You can watch the video here. I’m no expert on the man, but it seems that you can tell he wasn’t feeling well by his sudden and curt exit from the chamber. Hopefully it was nothing more than exhaustion or a migraine. Now is not the time to lose this man to retirement or — God forbid — worse.

(Other possibility: He was suffering from a mixture of heat exhaustion and boredom, thanks to the hot air that unceasingly emanates from the mouths of the U.S. Senate.)