Here's the official spin on this development, WSJ version, "The Pentagon ousted its top general in Afghanistan and appointed a new leadership team, in an attempt to jump-start a new war strategy that relies more on counterinsurgency tactics and less on conventional warfare."
The reality is different. The situation in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) has deteriorated dramatically in recent weeks. Support for the regime (and the USA) has weakened to alarming proportions, and support for the armed resistance has grown to a measure that surprised American planners. The US now faces a situation that is roughly the same as that faced by Russia before its debacle in Afghanistan.
There is no "jump-starting" going on. The US is rather in a panic mode to prevent a bad situation from becoming disastrous. There doesn't seem to be any real American perspective on how to win in the long run.
Obama has forgotten about withdrawing troops as he promised in his election campaign. Now the plan is to send in 21,000 reinforcements in the next month.
The US situation is not bright, but failure is not permissible because the Israelis want very much to keep Islamic militants under US attack.
2. Pope in Israel. As the author of the Maurice Pinay blog says, "Let history record that while Gaza was still smoldering, Benedict XVI warmly embraced the Israelis aiding them in their hasbara campaign calculated to make the world forget their horrible crimes."
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