Although it has received almost no coverage, this is a significant development from Afghanistan — more so than the daily Taliban attacks currently hogging the headlines:

NATO approved a reorganization of its command structure in Afghanistan on Tuesday to better coordinate the war there against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. . . . NATO agreed to establish a new Intermediate Joint Headquarters in Kabul under an American, Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, to manage the day-to-day war. General Rodriguez will continue to report to the top American military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

This new command — equivalent to a corps headquarters — will fill a large hole in the NATO command structure. Lt. Gen. Rodriguez will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the war, as Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno was in Iraq in 2007, while Gen. Stan McChrystal will be able to concentrate on the greater strategic picture, as Gen. David Petraeus did in Iraq. It has been obvious for some time that this was a role needing to be filled, but Gen. David McKiernan had resisted appointing a corps commander, which is part of the reason he is no longer in command in Afghanistan. There had been doubts among many American officers whether NATO would accede to a request to create another new headquarters led by an American general and largely staffed by Americans, which would be seen as further “Americanizing” what is supposed to be an allied endeavor. Kudos to the Obama administration for seeing the necessity of doing this and for getting our NATO allies to go along.