In a seemingly unusual move, US Army General David Petraeus appears poised to give up his leadership at Central Command to take over the job of one of his former “subordinates.”  While the situation is not quite that simple, from a military leadership perspective, the ISAF leadership position is certainly inferior to CENTCOM.

That aside, one of the more interesting aspects of this firing/hiring of US military General officers has been the attempt by the media to characterize the enemy’s response.  Newsweek had an entire article on “what the Taliban think…” about McChrystal’s future (short version: they don’t care).  Andrew Sullivan, a rather famous and controversial figure, wrote on the change in leadership and Obama’s ‘over-reliance’ on one man to solve his military problems (Petraeus), as well as the prediction this will actually delay withdrawal and extend the war.  Sullivan then said this about the war in Afghanistan in general:

Its deepest irony is that continuing this struggle will actually increase and multiply the terror threats we face – as it becomes once again a recruitment tool for Jihadists the world over. (emphasis added)

These “threat” and “recruitment” memes have been used many times Michael Weinstein, whose organization uses them to justify restrictions on religious freedom.  Sullivan goes as far as to say that the war in Afghanistan in general generates those threats and propaganda opportunities.  As has been discussed here before, such claims are ludicrous, especially since the only viable corrective action to those claims is to surrender.