By selecting General David Petraeus as the next commander in Afghanistan, president Obama will minimize the turmoil sparked by his replacing General Stanley McChrystal, who has been the architect of his surge plan. Compared to the recent controversy surrounding Gen. MChrystal, the president gets a steady and reassuring leader in Gen. Petraeus, who knows the region and the leaders that he will be dealing with.
"War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or a president," Obama said in a Rose Garden announcement. "And as difficult as it is to lose General McChrystal, I believe it is the right decision for our national security."
The biggest problem the president faces is not just replacing one general for a seasoned leader in Gen. Petraeus, but to get his foreign policy team on the same playing field. If President Obama is going to ask Gen. Petraeus to fix his Afghan strategy, much like he rescued Iraq from the brink, then the president’s whole foreign policy team needs a shake up, or they better wake up.
As the president states yesterday, “ I've just told my national security team that now is the time for all of us to come together. Doing so is not an option, but an obligation. I welcome debate among my team, but I won't tolerate division. All of us have personal interests; all of us have opinions. Our politics often fuel conflict, but we have to renew our sense of common purpose and meet our responsibilities to one another, and to our troops who are in harm's way, and to our country.”
The president is great at making speeches, but will his action speak louder than his words! If the fighting doesn't stop in his foreign policy team then all he did was set up Gen. Petraeus for failure!
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