Four years into the occupation of Iraq, national security advisor Stephen Hadley says the administration finally has a plan and all they need now is someone to execute it: an Iraq war czar.
Hadley’s insistence that the administration finally knows what they’re doing is in part a response to retired Marine general John Sheehan, who three weeks ago quite publicly declined Hadley’s offer to apply for the job on the grounds that the administration have no idea what they’re doing. The plan, Sheehan said, is unworkable without “unconstrained time and resources” on the military end of the equation and “a broader view of the region and how the parts fit together strategically … [w]e have never gotten it right in Iraq.”
The Associated Press story quoting Hadley doesn’t mention whether he was speaking in a forum that allowed follow-up questions from reporters. We’re still waiting for some member of our esteemed national press to go journalistically postal on one of these clowns. Four years, 3,000+ dead US troops, hundreds of thousands of dead and injured Iraqis and “We’re at a point now where we’ve got a plan”? Pretend plan, pretend president, pretend press.
I glad you remembered the “Plan For Victory” that basically repeated 3 words, “clear, hold, build” over and over and over again. Apparently Hadley thinks that all that was missing was a smooth-talking Czar to ram-rod the implementation of clear, hold, build.
It seems to me though that somebody already holds that position. Centcom Adm. William Fallon has full operational authority and is fully able to do the ram rodding.