Rumsfeld 'resisting' Powell's Iraq team (U.N. Squeezing In Already)

Times Online ^ | 3 April, 2003

[Happy2BMe]

April 03, 2003

Rumsfeld 'resisting' Powell's Iraq team
By Elaine Monaghan in Washington

A NEW chapter opened yesterday in the battle for control of US policy in postwar Iraq.

A US official told The Times that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, was resisting State Department appointments to the administration-in-waiting, at least one of whom is already in Kuwait.

He said that the Pentagon had ruled that Mr Rumsfeld should personally approve appointments to the temporary US-British administration, “and there are many people who question his authority to take that decision, including, I assume, the Secretary of State”.

Of Colin Powell’s nominees, he added: “We haven’t gotten a no, we just haven’t gotten an answer (from the Pentagon).”

He said that it was unclear how the row would end as the decision-making process was in flux. “The White House has to step in. One of the variables is Mr Tony Blair. Once again, he will be a critical voice in all of this,” he said.

Barbara Bodine, an experienced US diplomat expected to take the job of administering Baghdad, is in Kuwait waiting to enter Iraq. US officials have said that an inter-agency tussle is going on over whether she should get that job or a national position as coordinator of the civil administration, for which Michael Mobbs, a Pentagon lawyer, was the favourite.

Other State Department appointees whose participation is now in question include Robin Raphel, the vice-president of the National Defence University, and Kenton Keith, a former ambassador to Qatar.

The row boils down to control over policy-making on Iraq in the postwar phase, with the State Department anxious to create an environment that is more acceptable to foreign countries while the Pentagon is anxious to stay in control.

Critics of the Bush Administration’s neo-conservative wing, which dominates the Pentagon, say that its ranks are anxious to build a new Iraq in the image of the United States, using Westernised Iraqi exiles such as Ahmed Chalabi, a favourite of the Pentagon who is disliked by the State Department. The differences over how to involve Mr Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader, have raged for months.

Meanwhile, General Powell and Mr Blair are trying to secure a prominent role for the United Nations in an attempt to avoid further alienating US allies in Europe. State Department moderates are hoping that Mr Blair can repeat his apparent diplomatic success in keeping the Middle East peace process high up on President Bush’s priority list by getting him to intervene in the State Department-Pentagon spat.

The official said Mr Blair wanted an international flavour for the postwar phase in Iraq “and that naturally means a larger role for the State Department”. Foreign- aid experts have written to Mr Bush asking him to invite the UN to appoint a humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq.

Mr Blair supports the State Department position that the UN should play a prominent role in Iraq.

[Happy2BMe]

So we send 270,000 American troops to liberate Iraq only to turn it back over to the U.N.!??

[JeeperFreeper]

More wild speculation with unnamed sources ( ass't manager of waste disposal who overheard two clerks talking in a bathroom), trying to create controversy

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Ping!

[Maeve]

Repeating my post from another thread (hope that's okay):

IT IS URGENT to stop Colin Powell and the State Department's designs for a post-war Iraq. We have to rouse up Freeperdom to support Rumsfeld and the Iraqi dissident Chilabi.

Barbara Bodine must NOT be allowed to have any role there. My mother who knows a whole lot more about this than I do is emphatic that we may win the war but lose the peace if Colin Powell, Barbara Bodine and State get their way.

The exquisite Celtic warrior I call my mother, Siobhan the Righteous, says call the White House, your senators and your congressmen.

[Maeve]

Bump

[EaglesUpForever]

I have faith in Bush to oversee and do what's right.

[Maeve]

Even good guys can use encouragement to do the right thing.

[backtobasics]

>>>So we send 270,000 American troops to liberate Iraq only to turn it back over to the U.N.!?? <<<


My thoughts exactly. This stinks.........the UN protested our action, but now they are eager for control of the country. These people have got to get a clue.

[Maeve]

They should have no part in Iraq's future, and it is our country that should be denying the UN apparatchiks a future. Get the US out of the UN, and boot that sorry assembly to Geneva where it can die and rust in peace.

[MeekOneGOP]

Meanwhile, General Powell and Mr Blair are trying to secure a prominent role for the United Nations in an attempt to avoid further alienating US allies in Europe. State Department moderates are hoping that Mr Blair can repeat his apparent diplomatic success in keeping the Middle East peace process high up on President Bush’s priority list by getting him to intervene in the State Department-Pentagon spat.

Oh, yeah? Well . . .

To Kofi Annan with love,

Bart

[EaglesUpForever]

This particular article, as JeeperFreeper rightly said, is based on un-named sources and looks to highlighting differences rather than common assumptions (of which there must be many). Are you sure you have a true picture of the intentions of State? Based on what source?

[george wythe]

I assume, the Secretary of State”.

Since the whole premise of the article is based on assumptions, I will assume that Batman will be ruling Baghdad.

These faux fights between Rumsfeld and Powell are getting old.

[Happy2BMe]

"IT IS URGENT to stop Colin Powell and the State Department's designs for a post-war Iraq. We have to rouse up Freeperdom to support Rumsfeld and the Iraqi dissident Chilabi."

Colin Powell is dangrus. Does he have the same calling plan Kofu does or what?

How much of what he does gets screend through President Bush is what I want to know.

A free-lancer of hellacious proportions?

[Enduring Freedom]

I've warned all on numerous occasions.

Powell is the death of this administration.

Typhoid Powell wreaks disaster everywhere he goes.

Like a leper at a swap-meet, this guy is not welcome to undo the positive gains of the Bush liberation of Iraq by inviting the French and Germans to the table.

But Bush doesn't get it, I'm afraid.

Each and every time Rumsfeld leads, the GOP is on-message and respected, invinicible, if not feared.

Each and every time Powell leads, the GOP is ridiculed, attacked and vulnerable, and loathed.

Go for it President Bush!

Squander the very purpose, meaning and foundation for ignoring the United Nations by instead legitimizing them after the fact.

Don't let the war dead weigh on your soldiers.

France paid for the right to post-war Iraqi spoils with American lives once again, but this time under your watch.

[Enduring Freedom]

invincible

[ApesForEvolution]

It's not too far fetched to understand what the New World Order butt kissing fools in and outside of America wish to do. The UN mucks things up everytime it gets involved. Would you rather the UN put Japan back together?

[Happy2BMe]

Kofu was appointed in 2002 to a freakin' FIVE YEAR TERM!

Can you imagine another five years of him controlling N.Y.C.?

Hillary will be furies!

[ApesForEvolution]

The State Department's politics are closer to France and Germany's...and the world communists, than they are to America's. The State Dept. must be cleaned out dammit! Powell is NOT good for America!!

[Enduring Freedom]

Later, when the UN has been given back the microphone, it will use it to denounce America for the war of liberation.

PLEASE WAKE UP!

[ApesForEvolution]

Run a google search on Babs Bodine and some of these other clowns...