Commander Petraeus

So Gen. David "A Man Called" Petraeus is slated to become the commander of CENTCOM. It's somewhat unusual for military leaders to take over their bosses' job, I'm told. This is from an email from a national security expert:

Part of the reason the military moves officers around is that so no one person can promote their personal agenda, but rather this is "checked and balanced" by the fact that someone else has to come in after you and look at things with a fresh set of eyes. From that perspective, it is very unusual that the theater commander would become the Combatant Commander.

We know that Petraeus has a self-interest in staying in Iraq to "finish the fight," whatever that fight is. You can see a scenario where he would focus on Iraq to the exclusion of the other global security trouble spots that would be under his command, and that this would color his advice to the commander-in-chief. In the short term, we know that Admiral Fallon was dumped in part because of alleged indifference over an attack on Iran, the country that comes up most often in Petraeus' reports to Congress about meddlers in Iraq. Draw your own conclusions.

Ilan Goldenberg adds this:

Third, there was speculation that Petraeus was going to move off to SACEUR right around January. This guarantees that if there is a Democratic administration, Petraeus may end up playing a central role in helping design an exit strategy. Of course, in testimony last month he brought into question whether he'd actually be willing to do that. Which is huge, and must be asked again during the hearings.

I have absolutely no confidence that these confirmation hearings will be pulled off adequately. He's getting confirmed. Now we have to wonder whether this is another Bush Administration landmine, designed to cripple a Democratic President on the issue of national security by sowing discord among the top commanders.