Fears David Petraeus will ‘militarise’ CIA

With the two approaches – political and military – on Petraeus’s CV, Barack Obama’s decision to put him in charge of his country’s biggest spy agency may have been an inspired move.

But it has led to fears that the divide between the military and intelligence services may become blurred.

General Petraeus’s appointment as CIA director is part of the biggest shake-up of the President’s national security team since he took office two years ago.

He replaces Leon Panetta, who will become defence secretary, taking over from the retiring Robert Gates.

The changes come at a time of key decisions on the timetable for a withdrawal of US soldiers from Afghanistan. The original schedule calls for this to start in July, and for all troops to be out of Iraq by the end of this year.

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Related Coverage

• Obama names new Pentagon, CIA bosses The Australian, 4 days ago
• Obama to shake up defence team Courier Mail, 4 days ago
• President picks Petraeus as CIA chief The Australian, 4 days ago
• Petraeus set for CIA director role Herald Sun, 4 days ago
• Petraeus admits future talks Adelaide Now, 9 Apr 2011

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“Given the pivotal period we’re entering, I felt that it was absolutely critical that we had this team in place so we can stay focused on our missions, maintain our momentum, and keep our nation secure,” said Mr Obama. But the Afghan war is increasingly unpopular, costing $US300 million ($273.3m) a day when the US is struggling to reduce its debt. Polls show 72 per cent of voters want the withdrawal to speed up.

Nothing has yet been announced about how many of the 100,000 US troops will leave Afghanistan in July. A senior military officer said: “It will be token but made to look untoken.”

Matthew Hoh, who resigned his US State Department post in 2009 in protest at the administration’s Afghan policy, argued that Mr Obama should have used the opportunity to change course.

“The new team is like shifting deckchairs on the deck of Titanic,” he complained. “The policy is not working. I would have liked to see new outside minds to take a look at it.”

Many feel General Petraeus’s push for military success to weaken the Taliban before any negotiation has led to a neglect of the political process. “We have an end date without an end game,” said David Miliband, Britain’s former foreign secretary, when he visited Washington last week.

“There’s a double danger: that Afghanistan becomes a forgotten war, or drift weakens our ability to secure our goals so we see more jailbreaks or more independent forays.”

The most pressing task for General Petraeus may be mending fences with Pakistan. Relations between Washington and Islamabad are at a low ebb. The main irritant is the increased use of CIA drones to bomb militants in Pakistan. General Petraeus has been heavily involved in this and is disliked by the top echelons of Pakistan’s military.

One senior Pakistani officer referred to him as “Mr Petraeus” in an interview, explaining: “I call him mister because I regard him as a politician rather than a general.”

Some in the CIA seem equally distrustful. “The CIA will always prefer a civilian leader, whatever the talents of the individual in uniform,” said a former agent.

“It is, and should remain, a civilian institution, with a very different, independent culture from that of the military.”

Thomas Ricks, a defence analyst, agreed: “I think there’s a legitimate worry by some that we’ve seen a militarisation of foreign policy and this is a corollary: the militarisation of intelligence operations,” he said.

The CIA has questioned General Petraeus’s rosier picture of Afghanistan than that drawn by its own analysts.

“People could legitimately ask, can he really grade his own homework?” asked Michael O’Hanlon, a specialist in defence policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC who knows General Petraeus well.

“There are military officers who . . . don’t easily identify problems . . . Petraeus is not like that. He tends to be a stern critic of his own work.”

Although General Petraeus and his wife, Holly, have already bought a house close to CIA headquarters, he is due to stay in Afghanistan until September, when he will be succeeded by General John Allen.

Some warn that the last fighting season before he hands over command could be the bloodiest yet. General Richard Mills, who has just returned from commanding coalition forces in southwest Afghanistan, said: “The (enemy) leadership, which generally goes out of the country (in winter), were called back early.

“Having been in the military for 36 years, I know you don’t call your leadership back early because things are going well.”

The Sunday Times