Petraeus to head CIA

Gen. David H. Petraeus is headed for Langley, Va., when he finishes his last wartime command come autumn and the end of what promises to be a long hot fighting season in Afghanistan.

That’s according to two well-placed sources in Washington who told GlobalPost today that Petraeus will accept the White House’s offer for him to head up the Central Intelligence Agency. Both sources said that Petraeus had believed he would become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but that heading up the CIA was a position that suited him well and that he was looking forward to the ability to think on a more strategic level about the struggle against terrorism.

The sources added that Petraeus' accomplishments as a military commander and as a military history scholar who co-authored the counterinsurgency field manual make him an excellent choice to head up the country's leading intelligence agency.

The White House is expected to make the formal announcement tomorrow (as part of a major reshuffle of its national security team.

Current CIA Director Leon Panetta will move to secretary of defense. This reorganization comes at a time when many experts in Washington are wondering if there is indeed an "Obama doctrine" that is discernible through 10 years of conflict that have followed Sept. 11 and a world which is now witnessing breathtaking events across the Middle East.

In February, I interviewed General Petraeus at length about the pivotal moment in his extraordinary military career and he offered some personal observations about the toll the takes on military families, including his own. GlobalPost's two-part Special Report titled "The Last Fighting Season" will be published tomorrow.