With this whole McChrystal circus I went on and on with various sorts about how when Mc is finally offed there's no way in hell Petraeus will take the job to replace him - and of course today Petraeus takes the job to replace him - so that's embarrassing - especially since on reflection it makes perfect sense for Petraeus to replace him since when it comes to COIN in Afghanistan Petraeus has the most to lose therefore he has the most to gain in making sure things proceed according to plan - so with a little bit of effort I would have figured that one out and not looked so foolish - fuck it. I still think there's no way he agrees to this unless he's been promised certain baseline givens by Obama - it will be interesting to see how those 'promises' complicate things as the story moves along.
Of course I'm talking as if Petraeus had a choice in the matter - who knows if Obama insisted he take the job or if Petraeus actually sought it out in order to save a baby he is very much the father of - and how that all came to be may matter greatly because if Obama insisted and Petraeus resisted who knows if in the end he managed to wrest necessary assurances out of Obama regarding things like the withdrawal deadline etc etc.
And what about Gates? What role is he playing here? As several have noted, you've essentially demoted Petraeus from CENTCOM to Afghanistan - that's a rather dramatic move and it's hard to believe anyone else but Gates could have made it - what does it say that they felt there was no one else available capable of handling Afghanistan? - or maybe there was but indeed Petraeus insisted on this - many questions.Gates comes across as the consummate technocrat but as regards how accurate his vision is or relevant his ideas are concerning strategy and America's future military, I have questions there and I've read a lot of commentary by military professionals who also wonder if Gates maybe doesn't appear more competent than he actually is - in short that his thinking is rather one dimensional.
Still, one thing has been made clear by the McChrystal meltdown - the impression that the Obama administration is disunited on foreign policy, threatened by dysfunction and incoherence in this regard and consequently not trusted by significant elements within the military seems to come close to the truth.
