Perspective: Petraeus a tough commander

WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who is President Bush's choice to become the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, posed a riddle during the initial march to Baghdad four years ago that now becomes his own conundrum to solve: "Tell me how this ends."

That query, uttered repeatedly to a reporter then embedded in Petraeus' 101st Airborne Division, revealed a flinty skepticism about prospects in Iraq — by the man now asked to forestall a military debacle.

Long recognized as one of the Army's premier intellectuals, with a Ph.D. from Princeton to complement his West Point education, Petraeus, 54, will inherit one of the toughest assignments handed any senior officer since the Vietnam War. He takes command of 132,000 U.S. troops in a country shattered by insurgency and sectarian bloodletting, with a home front that is divided and disheartened after 3,000 American combat deaths.

Skepticism is rife, inside and outside the Army. "Petraeus is being given a losing hand. I say that reluctantly. The war is unmistakably going in the wrong direction," retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey said in an interview. "The only good news in all this is that Petraeus is so incredibly intelligent and creative ... . I'm sure he'll say to himself, 'I'm not going to be the last soldier off the roof of the embassy in the Green Zone.' "

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