Gen. David H. Petraeus took command of U.S. forces in Iraq today, and pronounced their task there as hard but not hopeless. (emphasis mine - BD)

An excerpt from the NYT story:

General Petraeus, who wore the fourth star of a full general for the first time during the transfer ceremony, succeeds Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who is returning to Washington to become the Army’s chief of staff. The new commander will oversee 132,000 American troops currently in Iraq and thousands more on their way as part of a so-called surge that is widely considered the last, best effort to bring peace to a country increasingly riven by sectarian violence, crime and corruption.

General Petraeus, 54, and General Casey, 58, both spoke at a formal ceremony on a military base outside Baghdad, striking tones of optimism and caution, while hinting at their different approaches to Iraq. For the past two and a half years, General Casey has pushed for a speedy transfer of control to Iraqi security forces so that American troops could withdraw; General Petraeus, an expert in counterinsurgency, has instead supported a more active American role, in line with new White House demands.

“The rucksack of responsibility is very heavy,” General Petraeus said, after beginning his speech with the Muslim greeting “salaam aleikum,” or “peace be upon you.”

“In truth, it is too heavy for any one person to bear, and we will all have to share the burdens and move forward together,” he said.

“If we can do that and if we can help the people of Iraq do likewise, then the prospects for success are good,” he said. “Failing that, Iraq will be doomed to continuing violence and civil strife and surely that is a prospect all must strive to avoid. The stakes are very high.”

General Casey, whose tactics have come under blistering attack recently in Congress, emphasized that Iraq would need to take responsibility for its own troubles if it was to ever move forward. Before the ceremony, he told reporters: “Everything is not as I would have expected it to be or wanted it to be on my way out. But that’s kind of the way things are.”

Asked about whether he had made any mistakes in his tenure, he said, “The main point that people will debate for some time to come is whether I relied too much on Iraqi security forces to carry the security load and too little on coalition forces.”

“But I’m certainly not ready to say that’s a mistake,” he said. “I’ll let history judge that.”

He later added: “My greatest fear is that Iraqis can’t put the past behind them. We liberated them from 35 years of tyranny. We can’t liberate them from the fears and prejudices that grew up in that 35 years. They have to do that themselves.”