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USA Today
April 24, 2008
Pg. 6
Lawmakers, analysts wonder if general can see beyond Iraq strategy
By Jim Michaels, USA Today
WASHINGTON — Following the announcement Wednesday that Gen. David Petraeus will be nominated to head the command overseeing the Middle East, members of Congress and military analysts questioned whether he would be tied too closely to the Iraq war in his new role.
Petraeus, who has led U.S. forces in Iraq for more than a year, will be President Bush's pick to lead the U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Members of Congress have counted on the head of Central Command to provide a counterbalance to Petraeus' troop requests for Iraq.
"Congress must ensure that Gen. Petraeus does not bring an Iraq bias to his new job, at the expense of America's broader security needs," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said in a statement.
Central Command, based in Tampa, is responsible for the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
The move places Petraeus in a position to affect the war in Afghanistan, where violence has grown over the past year. However, his influence there is limited, because NATO controls most of the international forces there.
Can "Gen. Petraeus objectively assess priorities as the overall commander of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan?" asked Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official in the Reagan administration.
Petraeus' former deputy in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, will be nominated to become the top U.S. commander Iraq.
Shifting Petraeus and Odierno allows the Pentagon to make crucial personnel moves without changing course in Iraq, where Petraeus has led a strategy that has reduced violence there.
"The course certainly that Gen. Petraeus has set has been a successful course," Gates said. "So, frankly, I think staying that course is not a bad idea."
Gates said the changes are expected in late summer or early fall — only after Petraeus makes initial recommendations about future troop levels in Iraq. Subsequent troop-level recommendations will fall to Odierno.
The changes were triggered by the unexpected resignation last month of Adm. William Fallon after the publication of a magazine article portrayed him as being at odds with the administration's policy toward Iran. Fallon had disputed that there were differences but said the controversy generated by the article had become a distraction.
Petraeus, 55, is considered one of the military's leading practitioners of counterinsurgency warfare. Over the past year in Iraq, he has been behind a strategy that emphasized securing Iraqi civilians by building combat outposts and moving troops into neighborhoods.
The strategy was backed by the addition of about 30,000 U.S. servicemembers. Odierno will probably pursue a similar strategy in Iraq. He "was Gen. Petraeus' right-hand man during this last year," Gates said.
Odierno had been nominated for promotion to four stars and assignment as the Army's vice chief of staff. He will get his fourth star, but Gates said that Bush will nominate Gates' senior military assistant, Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, for the Army vice chief of staff job.
April 24, 2008
Pg. 6
Lawmakers, analysts wonder if general can see beyond Iraq strategy
By Jim Michaels, USA Today
WASHINGTON — Following the announcement Wednesday that Gen. David Petraeus will be nominated to head the command overseeing the Middle East, members of Congress and military analysts questioned whether he would be tied too closely to the Iraq war in his new role.
Petraeus, who has led U.S. forces in Iraq for more than a year, will be President Bush's pick to lead the U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Members of Congress have counted on the head of Central Command to provide a counterbalance to Petraeus' troop requests for Iraq.
"Congress must ensure that Gen. Petraeus does not bring an Iraq bias to his new job, at the expense of America's broader security needs," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said in a statement.
Central Command, based in Tampa, is responsible for the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
The move places Petraeus in a position to affect the war in Afghanistan, where violence has grown over the past year. However, his influence there is limited, because NATO controls most of the international forces there.
Can "Gen. Petraeus objectively assess priorities as the overall commander of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan?" asked Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official in the Reagan administration.
Petraeus' former deputy in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, will be nominated to become the top U.S. commander Iraq.
Shifting Petraeus and Odierno allows the Pentagon to make crucial personnel moves without changing course in Iraq, where Petraeus has led a strategy that has reduced violence there.
"The course certainly that Gen. Petraeus has set has been a successful course," Gates said. "So, frankly, I think staying that course is not a bad idea."
Gates said the changes are expected in late summer or early fall — only after Petraeus makes initial recommendations about future troop levels in Iraq. Subsequent troop-level recommendations will fall to Odierno.
The changes were triggered by the unexpected resignation last month of Adm. William Fallon after the publication of a magazine article portrayed him as being at odds with the administration's policy toward Iran. Fallon had disputed that there were differences but said the controversy generated by the article had become a distraction.
Petraeus, 55, is considered one of the military's leading practitioners of counterinsurgency warfare. Over the past year in Iraq, he has been behind a strategy that emphasized securing Iraqi civilians by building combat outposts and moving troops into neighborhoods.
The strategy was backed by the addition of about 30,000 U.S. servicemembers. Odierno will probably pursue a similar strategy in Iraq. He "was Gen. Petraeus' right-hand man during this last year," Gates said.
Odierno had been nominated for promotion to four stars and assignment as the Army's vice chief of staff. He will get his fourth star, but Gates said that Bush will nominate Gates' senior military assistant, Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, for the Army vice chief of staff job.