An open letter to General Petraeus

Last week I met with members of the 100-person team who are conducting a top-to-bottom assessment of Centcom’s area of responsibility on your behalf. I have to say I don’t envy them their task, or you your’s. The remit of your military operation, Central Command (Centcom) is expansive – ranging from Egypt to Pakistan – but the tools at your disposal seem fairly limited and traditional.

And what must have started out as a repeat of your successful Iraq exercise will undoubtedly have been complicated by the many other on-going reviews, not to mention the need to await President Obama’s instructions, post-Inauguration.

But as the Obama team knows very well, the U.S will have to work with allies to accomplish its key security policy goals and that is why I’m writing to you: to explain what Europe would like to see Centcom do.

Let us start with Iraq. Everyone acknowledges the tremendous progress you have overseen in what was once thought of as a doomed U.S