U.S. to Appoint Top General to Kabul in Afghan Revamp

Source: WSJ
By PETER SPIEGEL
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to bolster the U.S. military leadership in Afghanistan by appointing a three-star general to Kabul, according to senior defense officials. The move underscores growing concern in the military over the course of the conflict and marks the first time since the seven-year war began that the U.S. will have two senior commanders there.
The appointment of Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who holds the military's second-highest rank, hasn't been announced publicly, and his exact role in Kabul is still being discussed. He was chosen by Mr. Gates last year to be his personal military assistant after a widely praised tour as a division commander in eastern Afghanistan.
The decision by Mr. Gates to move Gen. Rodriguez back to Afghanistan is the latest in a series of moves by the Pentagon leadership to play a more hands-on role in the Afghanistan war, after a year of rising violence and increasingly vocal criticism of the campaign plan within the military and on Capitol Hill. An internal task-force agenda reviewed by The Wall Street Journal detailed the growing concern.
Last month, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, quietly assigned his top staff officer, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to head the task force with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the Afghan strategy. Such strategic planning is usually left to commanders in the region. Linkhere