Petraeus to run CIA? Ugh

Hell, if Obama is serious about this, we should just name Gen. David Petraeus the shadow president, the foreign policy president or whatever and be done with it.

Yet another good reason to vote Green in 2012.

Surely, Petraeus will push for continuation of counterinsurgency of some sort in Afghanistan, any sort of continued backdoor presence in Iraq and more that we don't even know about.

A Politico op-ed "agrees" to the point of noting Obama is more changed by, than changing, Washington:

President Barack Obama’s nominations of Leon Panetta as defense secretary and Gen. David Petraeus as director of central intelligence demonstrate that the president has abandoned his pledge to change U.S. foreign policy. In fact, these nominations show that Washington has changed Obama far more than he has changed Washington.

Obama long insisted that he wants to reorient America’s focus — moving it away from nation-building projects in the Islamic world and toward Asia. He also insists he wants to trim military spending. But if Petraeus heads CIA and Panetta becomes defense secretary, it’s unlikely either will happen.

As I noted above, Petraeus will certainly push for COIN under some name.

Re Petraeus, Politico also asks if the CIA wouldn't be better served by an East Asia (read "China") hand? Agreed.

Plus, Politico even accuses Obama of "blathering."

In fact, these nominations, combined with other evidence, strongly suggest that Obama views foreign policy primarily as an instrument of domestic politics — an opportunity to give soaring speeches about the grand sweep of history and his view of America’s role in it.

THAT assessment certainly gets no argument from me. That said, it's coming from somebody who works at Cato.

But, I agree with Logan on the need for a China focus rather than "Global War on Terror."