Military Strategy

In promoting Army Gen. David H. Petraeus to commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, President Bush is doing more than rewarding a job well done in Iraq. The president also is taking a step toward perpetuating his policy of high troop levels in Iraq and is putting his most trusted general in charge of renewing the military's focus on Iran. Petraeus has been the prime advocate of Bush's policy of a large troop presence in Iraq.

When Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno began his second tour of duty in Iraq late in 2006 as the war's No. 2 commander, he was handed a battle plan that he and his staff quickly determined was out of touch with reality -- a set of precise timetables for handing over whole provinces to Iraqi security forces, regardless of their readiness. "This race to victory based on a timeline did not pass the common-sense test," said a top Odierno aide, citing the threat of widespread violence.

The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said the government might shut down vital oil lanes through the Persian Gulf if the country were attacked by the United States or Israel, according to a newspaper report Saturday. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if there were any confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, Tehran would try to damage Western economies by targeting oil.

Marine snipers were never given clear rules about when they could kill a suspected insurgent at long range, a platoon commander testified today at a hearing for a sniper charged with manslaughter and assault in the killing of two Syrians and the wounding of two others. Lt.

As part of an escalating offensive against extremist targets in Pakistan, the United States is deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials. The use of the specially equipped drones comes amid a fundamental shift in U.S. strategy in the area.

Confronting the prospect of failure after seven years in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is crafting a new strategy that is likely to expand the power and reach of that country's tribal militias while relying less on the increasingly troubled central government. Under that approach, U.S. forces would scale back combat operations to focus more on training Afghan government forces and tribal militias.

Weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, a small team of Green Berets was quietly sent to the Philippine island of Basilan. There, one of the world's most virulent Islamic extremist groups, Abu Sayyaf, had established a dangerous haven and was seeking to extend its reach into the Philippine capital. But rather than unleashing Hollywood-style raids, as might befit their reputation, the Green Berets proposed a time-consuming plan to help the Philippine military take on the extremist group itself.

In a sign that the U.S. military is scaling back its goals in Afghanistan, senior Pentagon officials are weighing controversial proposals to send additional teams of highly trained special operations forces to narrowly target the most violent insurgent bands in the country. The proposals are part of an acknowledgment among senior brass that a large-scale influx of conventional forces is unlikely in the near future because of troop commitments in Iraq.

The most important task for Gen. David H. Petraeus, installed as head of U.S Central Command, will be developing a single coherent strategy for Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday. Petraeus took command of Centcom and was given responsibility for overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa. He was the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

The U.S. military must do more to improve its ability to respond to the low-intensity, irregular fights it is likely to face in the years to come, even if the nation avoids another experience like Iraq or Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said. Gates wrote in an article released Thursday that the fight against extremism was a "prolonged, worldwide, irregular campaign." The article, though never mentioning his predecessor by name, criticizes former Defense Secretary Donald H.