Obama Doubles Down with Petraeus

President Obama may have chosen a new man for the job in Afghanistan, but he hasn’t rethought the strategy itself; if anything, he’s doubled down by selecting General David Petraeus to take over. “By placing Petraeus at the helm, it means that 2012 will probably look more like right now, in terms of troop levels and U.S. troops fighting, than anything Biden prefers,” Spencer Ackerman writes at The Washington Independent. “Make no mistake: This is Obama intensifying his strategy.” Earlier this month, Petraeus backed away from the July 2011 withdrawal date, saying he supports a “conditions-based” draw down, not a “race for the exits.”