The 'Energizer general' is soon back running a war

Army Gen. David Petraeus has already turned around a struggling U.S. war once. President Barack Obama is betting he can do it again.

The professorial four-star general with an outsized reputation hasn't been chosen as Afghanistan war commander to bring a bold new strategy to the effort. Instead, he is seen as the officer best able to make the current strategy work — and to end the squabbling between diplomats and military leaders that broke into the open and consumed Gen. Stanley McChrystal's career.

If McChrystal's staff resembled a locker room-style boy's club, Petraeus, a Princeton Ph.D., is known for running his team more like a graduate seminar. [Read more...]