Petraeus formally took over command of the war in Afghanistan last week, after President Barack Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal's dismissal related to the interview with Rolling Stone magazine that he and his staff made disparaging Vice President Joe Biden and other senior officials.
In December, Obama announced he was sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in efforts to regain the territories controlled by Taliban militants, and said he would start pulling troops from the country in mid-2011. In a turn of the command is no guarantee of Obama - who later reaffirmed Sunday by Petraeus - that the change of command does not mean a change in strategy.
But the newspaper The Post said the first meeting last week between the new commander and Afghan president Karzai renew tensions after opposition to the plan of assistance to residents of the village. The idea of recruiting villagers into local defense programs is an important part of U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan. Karzai apparently from the beginning opposed the idea to Petraeus, according to the report.
The senior U.S. official said the U.S. wants to expand that program up to about a dozen regions across Afghanistan, and hope to overcome anxiety Karzai, the newspaper said. But the problem is to melt some who worry that such experiments will only bring Afghanistan into the era of war and militias out of control, says The Post.
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