Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 to become commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan

Some breaking news for you this Wednesday afternoon: Even after his fainting spell last week, Gen. Petraeus, a four-star general with a master's degree and PhD. from the Woodrow Wilson School, replaced Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the commander of American forces in Afghanistan. Politico reports:

President Barack Obama has relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, POLITICO has learned, and replaced him with Gen. David Petraeus – putting a general well-known throughout the world for his work in Iraq in charge of the mission in Afghanistan.The Petraeus move is in some ways a demotion for the four-star general – who as head of U.S. Central Command was McChrystal’s boss, in charge of the whole Middle East theater. But it signaled a desire by Obama to move swiftly to cap the McChrystal situation by picking a sure-footed new commander, familiar with combat zones, counter-insurgency and how to deal with the press.

The move came in response to a very forthcoming Rolling Stone profile of McChrystal released yesterday. In it, McChrystal spoke out against high-level American officials, including Vice President Biden (who he referred to, charmingly, as "Bite Me") and President Obama, who he found unprepared and unengaged in some meetings with him.Petraeus, who wrote his Princeton dissertation on "The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam," recently spoke at Alumni Day this past March.Hopefully al Qaeda hasn't seen this picture already. Not very threatening.