USA — Senate Unanimously Confirms Petraeus

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 — The Sen­ate today unan­i­mous­ly con­firmed Army Gen. David H. Petraeus to be com­man­der of U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

The Sen­ate act­ed quick­ly on the nom­i­na­tion after yesterday’s con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing before the Sen­ate Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee. The Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion also kicked in NATO approval for the gen­er­al to become com­man­der of the NATO-led Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force in Afghanistan. 

Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma thanked the Sen­ate for its prompt action. 

“Gen­er­al Petraeus is a piv­otal part of our effort to suc­ceed in Afghanistan — and in our broad­er effort to dis­rupt, dis­man­tle, and defeat al-Qai­da – and he has my full con­fi­dence,” Oba­ma said in a writ­ten state­ment issued by the White House. “The Senate’s quick action and Gen­er­al Petraeus’s unri­valed expe­ri­ence will ensure we do not miss a beat in our strat­e­gy to break the Taliban’s momen­tum and build Afghan capacity.” 

Petraeus was serv­ing as the com­man­der of U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand, and replaces Army Gen. Stan­ley A. McChrys­tal in Afghanistan. Centcom’s deputy com­man­der, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, will serve as act­ing com­man­der until a replace­ment for Petraeus is nom­i­nat­ed by the pres­i­dent and con­firmed by the Senate. 

Petraeus is fly­ing to NATO Head­quar­ters in Bel­gium for meet­ings with NATO Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Anders Fogh Ras­mussen. He also will address the North Atlantic Coun­cil in per­ma­nent ses­sion with ISAF contributors. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)