WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is overhauling his national-security team with foreign-policy challenges and domestic politics in mind, but the personnel moves chiefly illustrate an effort to build a team that can regain the initiative on the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
By moving CIA Director Leon Panetta to the Defense Department, Obama is installing someone who has voiced concerns about the large American military operation in Afghanistan just as the White House begins internal deliberations over how quickly and how many U.S. troops can come home.
In putting Gen. David Petraeus at the helm of the CIA, Obama is placing his most successful military commander in charge of a spy service that hunts suspected al- Qaeda leaders and other militants in Pakistan’s remote tribal regions, often with airstrikes by the agency’s fleet of drone aircraft. U.S. officials say militants based in the tribal areas destabilize both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama also has lured veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker, a regional specialist who reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in 2002 and served as ambassador to Iraq, out of retirement to return to Afghanistan, where he will try to smooth relations with President Hamid Karzai.
Marine Gen. John Allen, a highly regarded Iraq war veteran who now is deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, is slated to become the new commander in Afghanistan.
Members of the new national-security team are expected to play major roles as the administration starts an initial drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, which Obama has pledged will begin in July. The U.S. also is withdrawing the last of its forces from Iraq this year, while supporting the growing NATO air war against Moammar Khadafy’s regime in Libya and navigating a volatile security landscape in the Middle East.
All the nominees are likely to easily win Senate confirmation.
Under Petraeus, the military has given cautiously upbeat assessments of progress in Afghanistan, citing efforts targeting midlevel Taliban commanders. U.S. intelligence agencies have been skeptical of claims of progress.
Heavy fighting is expected to pick up again in Afghanistan as winter ends.
The high-level shake-up also reflects domestic political considerations, including Obama’s determination to make deep cuts in the Pentagon budget just as the 2012 presidential campaign gets underway.
In Panetta, 72, the White House has chosen a reliable political ally and a deficit hawk to replace the more independent Robert Gates, a Bush administration holdover who has resisted White House efforts to cut the defense budget. A Democratic Party insider, Panetta is a former U.S. representative from California who was chairman of the House Budget Committee. As head of the Office of Management and Budget, he helped the Clinton White House pass hard-fought budget bills. He has maintained good relations with congressional lawmakers from both parties.
“The pros are that he is experienced in politics, the Hill, the budget and intelligence,” said Michael O’Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, a public-policy think tank. “The cons are that he is not generally known as a classic defense strategist or planner, in terms of deep familiarity with operational concepts of war.”
And by sending Petraeus, 58, into the secret world of intelligence, Obama has effectively sidelined a potentially potent critic during the presidential-election cycle. The CIA chief rarely even appears in public, except on Capitol Hill.
Much of his time will be focused on Pakistan, where he will preside over the CIA’s drone attacks. Pakistani officials have sought to curb U.S. operations, and relations plummeted after a CIA contractor was arrested after shooting and killing two Pakistanis.
Petraeus has dealt extensively with Pakistani officials, however, and often praised their cooperation despite grumbling from other U.S. officials that Pakistan was failing to crack down on militants.
Petraeus, who is expected to retire from the Army, may find a frosty reception at the CIA, however. The civilian agency has rarely worked well under military chiefs.
“The building tends not to like directors in uniform,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former top CIA official. “The question becomes, ‘Whose side are you on?’ “
A senior defense official said Gates’ last day on the job will be June 30. White House officials hope Panetta can pass Senate confirmation in time to take over at the Pentagon the next day.
Petraeus, by contrast, is expected to remain in command in Afghanistan until early fall. The delay is meant to give Allen, who commanded Marine forces in Iraq but has not served in Afghanistan, time to familiarize himself with the mission.
