Leader of Iraq turnaround begins new duties

Petraeus takes top regional job; Afghanistan war now part of focus

Defense Secretary Robert Gates (right) applauded General David Petraeus during a change of command ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., yesterday. Petraeus will head the Central Command, which covers the Middle East and Central Asia. (STEVE NESIUS/REUTERS)

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - General David Petraeus, regarded as rescuer of a failing war in Iraq, rose to the helm of Central Command yesterday, pledging to push for more than military solutions to the troubles of the greater Middle East.

Within hours he was to leave for a trip to the region.

Under bright sunshine on the shores of a glistening Tampa Bay, the four-star commander underlined the many problems facing not only Iraq and Afghanistan but also other countries in his new area of military responsibility - including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and the rest of Central Asia.

"As we have all seen in recent years, addressing these challenges requires comprehensive approaches to employ the whole of our government's capabilities," he said, alluding to his effort, during 20 months as the top US commander in Iraq, to involve more fully the State Department and other agencies.

"This is necessary not just to resolve pressing short-term issues, but to address - over time - the underlying conditions that give rise to such serious security challenges. So the way ahead will be difficult."

His first trip as chief of Central Command, starting today, was to include a stop in Pakistan, a US ally threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons.

Petraeus took command from Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, who had filled in as the acting Central Command commander since March, when Admiral William Fallon stepped down sooner than the Pentagon had expected. Dempsey is about to rise in rank to four-star general and assume command of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered warm praise for Dempsey and said the challenge for Petraeus has evolved, even in the weeks since he left Baghdad.

"The winds are shifting about us, once again," Mullen said. "But in all this, the value of leadership never changes. And it is no secret we have learned a lot from a leader named David Petraeus. His watchwords - learn and adapt - have echoed from the streets of Baghdad to the halls of Washington."

Petraeus, who is widely credited with engineering a turnaround in Iraq after it approached the brink of all-out civil war in 2006, has spent the past several weeks - since returning from Baghdad in mid-September - preparing for an encore, albeit on a larger stage.

At the ceremony, Defense Secretary Robert Gates heaped praise on Petraeus.

"It's hard to find much more to say about General David Petraeus," Gates told an audience that included members of Petraeus's and Dempsey's West Point class of 1974.

"He is the preeminent soldier-scholar-statesman of his generation and precisely the man we need in this command at this time," Gates said.

"Under his leadership, our troops have dealt our enemies in Iraq a tremendous blow," he said. "Now he will take aim at our adversaries in Afghanistan and lead security-capacity efforts throughout the Middle East, the Gulf, and Central Asia."

Petraeus, 55, did three tours of duty in Iraq, starting in 2003 as commander of the 101st Airborne Division. Later he spent more than a year heading the organization responsible for training Iraqi security forces.

Iraq will be a key part of Petraeus's broader responsibilities at Central Command, which manages US military relations with nearly two dozen countries in an area from Egypt, across the Middle East to Central Asia.

Petraeus is fond of saying that the struggle in Iraq is not yet finished. And he has said that the war in Afghanistan is likely to prove an even longer and harder struggle.

He said yesterday that he hopes the next administration in Washington sends the extra US troops that General David McKiernan, the top US general in Afghanistan, has said he needs - upwards of 20,000 combat and support soldiers - in 2009.