Petraeus takes over CENTCOM; SECDEF seeks "coherence" to Afghanistan strategy

GEN Petraeus took over U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), giving him overally responsibility over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates stressed that while it would be a primary
task for General Petraeus to "keep us on the right path in Iraq," an immediate
challenge was "bringing coherence to our own strategy" in Afghanistan.

So we'll see what happens. I greatly admire and respect GEN Petraeus: he epitomizes everything about that warrior-scholar paradigm. I hope he knows what the next step in Afghanistan is, because I certainly don't. I feel as though even classic COIN strategy may find itself challenged in Afghanistan (assuming, of course, that we are even undertaking a classical COIN effort). 

Where STEP ONE always reads "Secure the population," I wonder if we have yet to even lace our boots up in that regard. The enemy is able to move and operate with almost complete freedom, and is able to threaten and influence the population as he pleases. The presence of a neighboring nation-state which is either unwilling or unable (due to fears of retribution or reprisals or fomenting instability etc. etc.) to prosecute any kind of substantial search for terrorists within its borders, certainly exacerbates the situation.

We have a long way to go in the long war in Afghanistan. I hope GEN Petraeus' hundred-pound brain can put us on the right path.