It's a no brainer!
Posted on 05/06/2007 5:37:11 PM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
WASHINGTON - Now that the White House is searching for a "war czar," it begs the question of who has been coordinating U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan the past four years.
A team of West Wing players led by national security adviser Stephen Hadley has tried to keep turf-conscious agencies marching in the same direction on military, political and reconstruction fronts. A few Bush aides say privately, however, that the White House probably should have recruited someone to oversee the war effort a year ago.
(snip)
"The problem is not broad strategy and policy, it's that the bureaucracy is so inefficient and there's been so little follow-up that the machine doesn't work," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. He believes red tape in Washington is the biggest obstacle to winning in Iraq.
Gingrich has joined others in suggesting that a single person report directly to Bush — and perhaps the next president — and ask: "What are the choke points? What regulations do we need to fix?"
Hadley said he wants to make sure that if any request from the war zone bogs down among agencies, there is someone who can speak for the president to get it solved quickly.
(snip)
"This is really more of a head cracker than a czar — a bureaucracy cracker," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst for the Brookings Institution who likes the idea.
"They want one point person to contact everyone else to tell them that we need these 17 things by Tuesday to comply with the president's top foreign policy priority," said O'Hanlon, a former adviser to the Iraq Study Group. The panel concluded that duplication and conflicting strategies at federal agencies were undermining confidence in U.S. policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What the heck is the SecDef doing????? He's already the legislatively mandated "War Czar" ever since the National Security and Defense Unification Acts of 1947.
OK, is it Robert Macnamara or is it Donald Rumsfeld?
I'm confused.....
Oh wait....Rumsfeld was our War Czar, and now we have a new one!!!Yeah....
This has to be the largest lame brained idea that I have seen come from DC since the LBJ era, to install a “war czar” basically means that they do not know what the Sam Hill that they have been doing these past 4 years.
Nope. Wrong use of the phrase.
It's a no brainer!
The qualified candidates would much rather dodge bullets in Iraq, than to deal with the Dems and their predictable, calculated attacks designed to destroy anyone connected to this Administration.
This is a failure of the Bush Administration. If he is not in charge of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan - then who the heck is in charge? The problem is not that no ONE is in charge (that would be President Bush) but that no one DEPARTMENT is in charge - Defense or State? Can’t have both in charge... Rumsfeld did not want to be in charge - he wanted to leave quickly. State Department wanted control but not the responsibility.
“Jointness” does not work between a ‘WAR’ Department and a ‘TALK’ Department. Bush has to pick ONE.
dvwjr
This sounds like a gimmick to me so that someone else can be blamed for the screwup’s that have occurred during the Fiasco in Iraq.
The Past is Past.Let’s just win the damn war and get it over.I wish President Bush would stop fighting this war like he’s trying to avoid offending anyone. Too hell with that.Our troops deserve much better than that.
...it points to a figurehead presidency where everyone’s waiting for leadership and the leadership is waiting for someone else to do something.
“Can’t have both in charge.’
Nor, in Afghanistan, can we fight a war and drugs and a war on terror at the same time. The former undermines the latter but both seem to have equal sway.
Thing is, if the WOD succeeds, a third of the Afghan economy is wiped out making the WOT that much harder to pursue.
Gates is spending all of his time being a politician and answering to the check writers (congress). He is a CEO of a $450 BILLION dollar company now. Petreaus is leading one war effort in Iraq and STILL having to defend the war to congress.
Mr. President, YOU are the Commander-in-Chief. This is YOUR job to make the big decisions.
David Broder had an interesting column today about the war. He ended it with a paragraph which I agree totally. To excerpt, "Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 with a promise to end the Vietnam War. And if George Bush doesn't do it, a Democrat will win in 2008 with a promise to end the war in Iraq."
This proves that Bush is an utter complete failure as President. He is the Commander in Chief!!!!!! CIC is the person in charge. Bush is a moron and the stupidest President ever in this country’s history. The Defense Department is the military.
This country is doomed. I am sure Gore and Kerry know that the President is Commander in Chief.
They can always grow ethanol..;-)
| The rules of engagement (ROE) are, by formal definition, the directives issued by competent military authority that delineate the circumstances and ... www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/5/145110.shtml |
| WASHINGTON -- Top Pentagon officials this week have attempted to craft simple rules of engagement for combat troops in Iraq that would allow them to use ... www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/5/192247.shtml |
Maybe we would have been better off with Gore or Kerry, knowing that Bush is a failure and very very stupid. Bush has no leadership capibilities. This article proves it.
I agree.
No matter what the Bushbots say, Bush is a weenie and very very weak. We do not need a weak President now. He should resign immediately.
I was happy over the win in France earlier today, but this has changed it. Maybe the French are better than us.
Though people need understand...this is not about CINC GWB looking for others to make decisions....He is the decision maker and is more then comfortable at carrying that burden. This is about the transfer of information...and the information flow between Dept's, etc.
Bottom line is SecState and SecDef need to step the hell up - There is no reason at their pay grade for the need to create an official "hand-holder" for the two....
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