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23 Apr 2008 08:45 pm

Petraeus's Promotion

Noah Shachtman's reaction to Petraeus's nomination to commander of U.S. Central Command:

One camp in the military wants the armed forces to focus more and more on combatting insurgencies and other non-traditional wars, like the fights in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The other crowd is worried about the Army becoming losing its big war skills.  The counterinsurgents won today.  And not just in the elevation of Petraeus, who oversaw the writing of the military's new-ish counterinsurgency manual.  Gen. Richard Cody, the last Army vice chief, was loudly warning last year that the Army was putting too much effort into training for small, dirty wars.  I doubt rather strongly that Lt. Gen. Chiarelli, who's served two tours in Iraq, is of the same opinion.

Thomas Barnett's thoughts:

If Petraeus goes from CENTCOM to the CJCS, which many will now anticipate all the more, depending on his perceived success in this post, then he logically ends up as the pivotal player in military's post-9/11 evolution, eclipsing Schoomaker and Rumsfeld by a ways.

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