From Helene Cooper, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, the New York Times: When President Obama descended into the White House Situation Room on Monday for his monthly update on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the new top American military commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, ticked off signs of progress.
Come December, when the president intends to assess his Afghan strategy, he will be able to claim tangible successes, General Petraeus predicted by secure video hookup from Kabul, according to administration officials. …
Like no other figure today, General Petraeus has stepped into Gen. Colin L. Powell’s shoes as the face of the military to ordinary Americans, particularly as the White House extols the end of the combat mission in Iraq, which was largely made possible by the troop surge that General Petraeus orchestrated.
For Mr. Obama, that may be a blessing and a curse. General Petraeus has made clear that he opposes a rapid pullout of troops from Afghanistan beginning next July, as many of the president’s Democratic allies would like. Some in the White House, with an eye on the 2012 presidential election, fear that the general may already be laying the foundation for keeping a large force in Afghanistan for a long while. …
The new alliance between Mr. Obama and General Petraeus holds risks for the general as well as the president. In taking on Afghanistan, he is risking his reputation as perhaps the greatest general of his generation on a war that many people think will end in a stalemate. Even if General Petraeus’s strategy is a solid one, few believe Mr. Obama will commit the time and resources — many years and hundreds of billions of dollars — needed to test the Petraeus thesis. …
Added Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations: “They are joined at the hip, but the leverage lies with Petraeus. And Petraeus has made plain, publicly, that after July 2011, he doesn’t think there should be a rapid pullout.” (photo: Getty)
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