General David Petraeus, the new head of the coalition in Afghanistan, knows how important it is for the civilians and the military to work "hand in glove," a US official said Wednesday.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also said he expected a smooth handover to Petreaus from General Stanley McChrystal, whom President Barack Obama fired for disparaging the civilian leadership in a magazine article.
"I think part of the rationale that went into the president's decision was, in fact, to make sure that, as he said, there would be unity of effort," Crowley told reporters.
"We certainly understand that he (Petreaus) recognizes the importance of both the civilian and military components of the strategy working hand in glove," Crowley told reporters.
"And we would expect there to be the same kind of transition from General McChrystal to General Petraeus in Afghanistan that you saw from General Petraeus to General (Ray) Odierno in Iraq," he said.
Crowley said meanwhile that Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan who was also criticized by McChrystal in the article, was in Islamabad on Wednesday after a stop in Kabul to prepare for a July 20 conference there.
The Kabul meeting, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend, is designed to follow up business a summit on Afghanistan that was held in London in January.
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