A very weird profile of the most senior Administration official dedicated to Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/washington/12osullivan.html?_r=1&oref=sloginAdviser Has President's Ear as She Keeps Eyes on Iraq
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, June 11 — At the end of each day, President Bush gets a
three-to-four-page memo (that long?) from the National Security Council staff about developments over the previous 24 hours in Iraq. The document, said to be written in the crisp, compelling style that the president prefers, can cover a range of issues — the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, new nominees for cabinet posts or the progress, or lack of it, in ending the three-year insurgency.
The person responsible for the memo is someone who is largely unknown outside the administration, but who colleagues say is instrumental in shaping Mr. Bush's views: Meghan L. O'Sullivan, the 36-year-old deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, and the most senior official working on those nations full time at the White House.
...
Ms. O'Sullivan, who was
crisp and wary in a recent interview in her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, would say little more about her conversations with Mr. Bush. But people who have seen her brief the president say she has been
succinct, unpretentious, full of facts and cheerful (i.e. written on a third-grade level) — exactly what Mr. Bush likes.
Colleagues say that Ms. O'Sullivan holds to the view, reflected in the president's public statements, that rebuilding Iraq's civic institutions and persuading Iraqis to accommodate one another politically is a way out of the sectarian violence.
She is more optimistic about the political process than others in the administration. (Might as well be optimistic, that's what makes you popular with Bush.)...
In Baghdad, American Embassy officials sometimes use the phrase,
"Let's not Meghan-ize the problem," meaning, let's not try to impose order on the chaos of Iraq with one of her five-point presentations. Her supporters counter that she is more aware of the reality on the ground than many others in the administration.
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