U.S. troops will now contribute more of their own insight to the CIA’s analysis of the state of the Afghan War. Despite initial resistance from old-school CIA members who pointed to the intelligence agency’s new director David Petraeus as being behind the shakeup, it was actually Gen. John Allen, the current commander in Afghanistan, who urged the change. Twice a year, the CIA reviews each Afghan district to determine whether the Taliban or the government is in control. Now, the process for conducting this review will begin with briefing the battlefield commanders in each of these districts on what they’ve observed.
