Afghanistan and the General

Washington’s foreign policy team produced two days of rich and distinctive coverage of the sacking of General McChrystal and his replacement by his boss David Petraeus. Coverage included the whole spectrum of alternative formats – snap analysis, q+as, scenarios, factboxes, newsmakers and blogs – and examined how strategy might be impacted, what pitfalls await Petraeus and the personalities. To cap it off Reuters readers got n exclusive look into Petraeus’ thinking on Afghanistan just a day after he got command of the nine-year-old war. Petraeus at the Pentagon just minutes before he was whisked away to the White House and told for the first time that he would take over. In the special report, Petraeus said a rapid turnaround in Afghanistan was not in the cards. The Republican favorite also vowed not to run for president, squashing rumors that he might challenge Obama. The story was cited by influential Washington websites like Politico and the Talking Points Memo.