More unity of command for US forces in Afstan

In October 2008 most US forces that were not part of ISAF (they had been directly under US Central Command) were put under a new command, United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), headed by General David McKiernan, who is double-hatted as ISAF commander.

However US, and some foreign (Canadian?), special forces remained assigned to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A: a command of which I was not aware and which, naturally, does not have its own website--but one can buy CJSOTF-A t-shirts and mugs). These forces have been reporting to...

...Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, the head of the [US] military’s Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the secret commando units [this command in part of US Special Operations Command].

Not to Gen. McKiernan. But now:

United States special operations forces in Afghanistan, whose commando raids and airstrikes against suspected Taliban targets have caused large numbers of civilian casualties that have angered Afghans, have quietly been put under the "tactical control" of the commander of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, for the first time.

An order issued last Tuesday at the direction of Central Command (CENTCOM) chief General David Petraeus gives McKiernan authority over all operations by special operations units stationed in the country, as Colonel Gregory Julian, McKiernan's spokesperson, confirmed in an e-mail to Inter Press Service (IPS). The order, which has not been made public, modifies previous command arrangements which had excluded US special operations forces from McKiernan's command authority...

One would think this greater American unity of command can only help things. But Gen. McKiernan still reports to NATO SHAPE under his ISAF hat and to US CENTCOM under his USFOR-A hat.

Update: A post here on Canadian special forces (nothing about Afstan though).