U.S. military commander General David Petraeus handed over his command in Iraq to Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno. Petraeus has been credited with overseeing improvements in security across the country, but the incoming U.S. commander is warning that violence could easily escalate.
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Gen. David Petraeus, the new head of Central Command, says he probably won't ever use the word "victory" when talking about the war in Iraq.

Q: Do you think you will ever use the word "victory"? Petraeus: I don't know that I will. I think that all of us at different times have recognized the need for real restraint in our assessments, in our pronouncements, if you will. And we have tried to be very brutally honest and forthright in what we have provided to Congress, to the press, and to ourselves.

Later this morning President Bush will speak at the National Defense University about the status of troops in Iraq, and possibly Afghanistan. The speech comes on the heels of a review of Iraq plans by General David Petraeus, who has been the theater commander in Iraq since January, 2007. (General Petraeus has recently been nominated to head U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and confirmed by the Senate.) The Takeaway spoke about Iraq plans with Lt. Col. Nathan Freir (Ret), who has served in Iraq under General Ray Odierno, the man who will be assuming command of Iraqi forces once Petraeus leaves.
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Rob Watson, BBC Defense Correspondent
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This week in Riverside, California a civilian jury is being asked to decide whether a former US Marine committed a criminal act during the course of his military service. The verdict aside, this case is a first for US courts. The case establishes a precedent by allowing military contractors and ex-military to be prosecuted for crimes committed overseas. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, was passed in 2002, but this is the first time it’s been tried in US courts. The Takeaway talks to Steven Cuevas, a reporter from KPCC who has been following the trial from California
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With only months left in the term, the Bush Administration is taking a hard look at the legacy they are about to leave. But President Bush’s place in history entirely depends on who you ask. Will he be remembered as the man who misled the country, squandered our savings and endorsed torture tactics? Or will he be the man who freed 60 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq, Left No Child Behind and comforted the nation after September 11? These are the questions Peter Baker put to former and current advisers to the President and to the President’s father for his upcoming piece “The Final Days” in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine.
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Guest: Steven Farrell, The New York Times, in Baghdad, Iraq
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Guest: Crispin Thorold, BBC correspondent in Baghdad
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Guest: Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent
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Guest: Sean Corcoran, WCAI, a public radio station serving the Cape Cod region

Tributes by friends and relatives of Paul Conlon and Daniel McGuire, both of Mashpee, Massachusetts, killed last week in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. Interviews by Sean Corcoran, Senior Reporter at WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station, and Takeaway Producer Noel King.

The war in Iraq has caused a refugee crisis. Nearly two million Iraqis have been displaced within Iraq, another two million have been driven outside of the country. Nour al-Khal, a translator who survived being shot in Basra, joins The Takeaway to discuss life after Iraq, and the lives of those who cannot leave the war-torn country.
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The book “Generation Kill” is based on the experiences of journalist Evan Wright as he rode from Kuwait to Baghdad in 2003. The marines in HBO's version are played by actors, but their stories are real.
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Evan Wright turned the articles he wrote as an embedded journalist in Iraq for Rolling Stone into the award winning book “Generation Kill." Wright sold the rights to HBO, who promised to re-create the book with the same grittiness and harsh realism that Wright captured in his book. The result is “Generation Kill,” the miniseries.
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Samir Jassem teaches diving to orphans in Baghdad.

Thurayya Hashem is a veterinarian at Baghdad zoo.

Dhikra Sarsam is an artist who kept on painting through good times and bad.

Ali Ta'ayyib is a musician who plays at weddings.

Hassan Ali studied philosophy at Baghdad University. But for the past four years, he's worked as a municipal garbage collector.

Audio credit: Jim Muir, BBC

As part of an ongoing conversation on the U.S. role in Iraq, Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells The Takeaway what America needs to do to say, with confidence, “Mission Accomplished.”
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It's not just the oil companies reaping the benefits of oil prices gone wild. A new report from the Government Accountability Office estimates Iraqi oil profits from 2005 to the end of this year to be at least $156 billion. The government's budget surplus could stand at $79 billion by the end of 2008.
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Guest: Steven Lee Meyers, White House Correspondent, New York Times
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The International Olympic Committee has overturned an earlier decision banning Iraq from this year's Olympics. The latest move came after last-minute talks during which Iraq promised to hold free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation.
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At the end of the year, the mandate which allows the United States to operate in Iraq under international law runs out. Issues of Iraqi sovereignty and oil-wealth distribution will bubble through the discussions between the White House and the Iraqi government.
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Yesterday, Iraq saw one of its bloodiest days of the year. The city of Kirkuk exploded into a cauldron of ethnic violence. Separate suicide bombings shook Baghdad. All told, at least 61 people were killed.
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Guest: Jim Muir, BBC correspondent
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The Embassy of the United States in Baghdad announced Thursday it will expand its visa-granting program. The program aims to help Iraqi employees of the American government obtain visas, and ultimately citizenship, in the United States.
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Barack Obama's mid-campaign trip to the Middle East continues. He's now in Iraq where he will talk with U.S. military officials and Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who recently announced it's time to talk about a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal.
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Today the New York Times is reporting that shoddy electrical work at U.S. bases in Iraq is more prevalent than the Pentagon has acknowledged. Contractor KBR has reported similar problems in the housing it maintains. Thirteen Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq and hundreds more have been injured.
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After countless movies about Iraq and Afghanistan, Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale just wants filmmakers to tell it like it is… or perhaps how the Army says it is. But is Breasseale’s Army Media Relations division concerned with telling the truth, or promoting its own agenda?
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Guest: Wayne White, former Deputy Director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office
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There is a new enemy on the battlefields of Iraq and it's too small to be seen. It's Acinetobacter baumannii, a drug-resistant killer microbe.
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What is the future of Iraq? And what is America’s role in it? As part of The Takeaway's ongoing conversation, John and Adaora talk with Paul Hughes, Senior Program Officer at the United States Institute for Peace.
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