{"id":3455,"date":"2010-06-23T18:00:48","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T18:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=3455"},"modified":"2010-06-23T23:20:03","modified_gmt":"2010-06-23T23:20:03","slug":"mcchrystal-out-petraeus-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=3455","title":{"rendered":"McChrystal Out, Petraeus In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p height=\"277\">Story\u00a0 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/POLITICS\/06\/23\/general.mcchrystal.obama.apology\/index.html?hpt=T1&amp;iref=BN1\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.feedroom.com\/affiliate\/_common\/js\/fr_embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Watch the statement by the President <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pentagonchannel.mil\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David Petraeus<\/strong> is best qualified but not the only qualified replacement. Hard to see how this is not also technically a\u00a0demotion for General Petraeus unless he is going to wear three hats as <strong>CENTCOM<\/strong> combatant commander, US commander in Afghanistan and head of <strong>ISAF<\/strong>. Perhaps the Senate will insist on that, it has been done before on the civilian side at State and the NSC\u00a0when <strong>Thomas C. Mann<\/strong> held three critical Latin American policy posts for <strong>LBJ<\/strong> during the Dominican Crisis of &#8217;65. <strong>Kissinger<\/strong>, of course, was both <strong>Secretary of State<\/strong> and <strong>National Security Adviser<\/strong>\u00a0 under <strong>Richard Nixon<\/strong> for a time. Wonder why Mattis or Rodriguez were not moved up?<script type=\"text\/javascript\">                var so = new FlashObject (\"http:\/\/pentagontv.pb.feedroom.com\/usgov\/pentagontv\/embedoneclip\/player.swf\", \"Player\", \"322\", \"277\", \"8\", \"#FFFFFF\");  so.addVariable (\"Environment\", \"\");  so.addVariable (\"SkinName\", \"pblibrary\");  so.addVariable (\"SiteID\", \"pentagontv\");  so.addVariable (\"SiteName\", \"The Pentagon Channel\");  so.addVariable (\"ChannelID\", \"\");  so.addVariable (\"StoryID\", \"4b3e4ac8cc8e5f6696edeeed9e1eb4f509c0c0a2\");  so.addVariable (\"Volume\", \".5\");  so.addVariable (\"HostURL\", document.location.href);  so.addVariable (\"SWF_URL\", \"http:\/\/pentagontv.pb.feedroom.com\/usgov\/pentagontv\/pblibrary\/player.swf\");  so.addVariable (\"AddThisSWFWidth\", \"322\");  so.addVariable (\"MoreVideoURL\", \"http:\/\/www.pentagonchannel.mil\/\");  so.addVariable (\"VideoSmoothing\", \"true\");  so.addVariable (\"AutoPlay\", \"true\");  so.addVariable (\"VideoPlayer.videoPlayer1.StoryLinkURL\", \"http:\/\/www.pentagonchannel.mil\/?fr_chl=&fr_story=4b3e4ac8cc8e5f6696edeeed9e1eb4f509c0c0a2\");  so.addVariable (\"AddThisSWFHeight\", \"277\");  so.addVariable (\"VideoPlayer.videoPlayer1.SendEMailURL\", \"http:\/\/pentagontv.feedroom.com\/custom\/playerbuilder\/feedroom\/sendMail.jsp\");  so.addVariable (\"OneClipEmbedCodeWidth\", \"322\");  so.addVariable (\"OneClipEmbedCodeHeight\", \"277\");  so.addVariable (\"BaseURL\", \"http:\/\/www.pentagonchannel.mil\");  so.addVariable (\"AddThisHostURL\", \"http:\/\/www.pentagonchannel.mil?fr_chl=&fr_story=4b3e4ac8cc8e5f6696edeeed9e1eb4f509c0c0a2&rf=cs\");  so.addVariable (\"VideoPlayer.videoPlayer1.JavascriptFolderURL\", \"http:\/\/static.feedroom.com\/affiliate\/_common\/js\");  so.addVariable (\"AddThisSWFURL\", \"http:\/\/pentagontv.pb.feedroom.com\/usgov\/pentagontv\/embedoneclip\/player.swf?fr_chl=&fr_story=4b3e4ac8cc8e5f6696edeeed9e1eb4f509c0c0a2\");  so.addVariable (\"quality\", \"high\");  so.addVariable (\"OneClipEmbedCodeURL\", \"http:\/\/pentagontv.pb.feedroom.com\/usgov\/pentagontv\/embedoneclip\/player.swf\");  so.addVariable (\"Org\", \"usgov\");  so.addParam (\"quality\", \"high\");  so.addParam (\"allowFullScreen\", \"true\");  so.addParam (\"allowScriptAccess\", \"always\");  so.addParam (\"menu\", \"false\");  so.write (\"flashcontent\");<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Marshall considered stepping down from his Chief of staff post (really a Supreme Military Allied Chief of Staff in practice) to become the commander of D-Day but ultimately he went with Ike, though field command at Normandy had been his heart&#8217;s desire.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck General Petraeus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ADDENDUM:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Thomas Ricks<\/strong> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ricks.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2010\/06\/23\/daves_back\">also speculates on Petraeus as\u00a0triple CENTCOM -Afghanistan\/ISAF commander<\/a>. This would probably placate <strong>NATO<\/strong>, <strong>Pakistan<\/strong> and<strong> Karzai<\/strong>, all of whom were nervous about McChrystal&#8217;s departure and reduce the number of Senate confirmation hearings required and get complete unity of command. However very capable deputies and &#8220;systems&#8221; need to be in place in each command for Petraeus to play orchestra conductor effectively instead of being a fire brigade.<\/p>\n<p>About the worst possible administrative result would be Petraeus being replaced at CENTCOM by an unknown\u00a0flag officer\u00a0without direct command experience in Iraq or Afghanistan who fears to take any initiative, while\u00a0additional civilian political operatives from the Executive branch are granted vague &#8220;czar&#8221;\u00a0roles to meddle erratically in AfPak policy outside of Defense and State channels. Just enough chefs to burn down the kitchen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ADDENDUM II.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>SWJ<\/strong> publisher <strong>Bill Nagle<\/strong> says <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/smallwarsjournal.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/so-what-now\/\">Petraeus will not will not ultimately wear both hats<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Interesting if predictable developments today with GEN McChrystal being relieved by President Obama.\u00a0 <em>Er<\/em>, I&#8217;m sorry, resigning.\u00a0 And certainly an interesting move with GEN Petraeus being promoted, <em>er<\/em>, demoted, <em>er<\/em>, reasssigned &#8211; yeah, that&#8217;s it, reassigned.\u00a0 That strikes me as a wise move, all the more so because of the explicit statement that the rest of the CENTCOM job will not be his, too.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not like that&#8217;s an easy enough job alone and we need to get more mileage out of that particular 4 star billet<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think there will be tough questions\u00a0about AfPak strategy and who has what authority in a constellation of bigwigs during Senate confirmation hearing regardless if Petraeus keeps both jobs or if there&#8217;s another nominee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ADDENDUM III.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Barnett<\/strong> says two-hats or one hat, Petraeus is now &#8220;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.esquire.com\/blogs\/politics\/david-petraeus-afghanistan-strategy-062310\">untouchable<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story\u00a0 here. Watch the statement by the President here. David Petraeus is best qualified but not the only qualified replacement. Hard to see how this is not also technically a\u00a0demotion for General Petraeus unless he is going to wear three hats as CENTCOM combatant commander, US commander in Afghanistan and head of ISAF. Perhaps the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[527,20,270,187,18,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-coin","category-national-security","category-politics","category-war","category-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}