Gen. David Petraeus' last day in Afghanistan

Petraeus ends his tour in Afghanistan without conclusive signs that the counter-insurgency strategy he helped design has turned the tide in the war against the Taliban. The more than 140,000 NATO troops under his command have weakened the insurgency in some of its key strongholds in the south, but other parts of the country remain treacherous, and Taliban leaders still operate with relative impunity from Pakistan. …

In a morning ceremony outside Petraeus’s Kabul headquarters, however, the military commanders and Afghan officials chose to emphasize positive developments from the past year, when Petraeus has been in charge. …

The senior U.S. military officials in attendance at the ceremony, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, heaped praise on Petraeus for 37 years of military service.

Mullen called Petraeus “one of the most successful and storied generals of our time.”

“Dave has set the standard for wartime command in the modern era,” Mullen said. “There is no one, no one, in the pantheon of American military leadership who so perfectly symbolizes the scope of the effort of our armed forces.”