"The Best General Around"

AP:

Gen. David Petraeus took charge of U.S. forces in Iraq on Saturday, becoming the third commander in the war and declaring the American task now was to help Iraqis "gain the time they need to save their country."

The media-savvy, Princeton-educated Petraeus, 54, spoke bluntly of the task before him that coincides with President Bush’s decision to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to clamp off violence in Baghdad and nearby regions.

Petraeus, whose appointment was announced in early January, takes command of the roughly 135,000-strong U.S. force in Iraq after two previous tours: what was seen as a highly successful stint as head of the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, and a second tour in charge of training Iraqi forces.

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Iraqi government hoped Petraeus’ command would help a new joint U.S.-Iraqi security plan.

"It reflects the change in U.S. policy in Iraq. We have so much hope that the security plan will succeed and that he (Petraeus) will be part of that success," said the adviser, Bassam al-Husseini.

In addition, when Harkins was finally brought home, the attitude in Washington was again simplistic: a bad general was going to be replaced by a good general; it was not the whole system, the bad war, which had produced such fraud, it was simply the wrong general. Thus one replaced him with the best general around. Individuals could make a difference.

In June 1964 General William C. Westmoreland became the commander of American forces.

David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest, p. 405.