The WarRoom: In search of the war czar

[maddezmom]

In search of the war czar
Almost four years after George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, the New York Times reports today that the White House is still looking for an Iraq czar -- or, as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley puts it, an "implementation and execution manager" who would brief the president each morning and then work with Cabinet secretaries to ensure that they're carrying out White House orders.

It sounds like such a reasonable idea -- or at least it would if a) the president didn't already have a national security advisor, or b) we were having this discussion, oh, say, four years ago.

On the first point, Hadley seems to have concluded that he's either too busy or otherwise inadequate for the job. He tells the Times that the White House needs someone to work Iraq "full-time, 24/7." "What we need," he says, "is someone with a lot of stature within the government who can make things happen."

Now, more than four years and 3,351 dead Americans into this war, we'd think that there would be any number of people with "a lot of stature within the government" paying attention to the issue "24/7" -- the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the national security advisor -- and that any one of them ought to be able to "make things happen."

more: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/04/30/czar/index.html

[panader0]

1. "War Czar" It has an evil sound. War is bad, czars are bad.

Where's the Peace Leader?

[Phredicles]

2. "we'd think that there would be any number of people with...

'a lot of stature within the government' paying attention to the issue "24/7" -- the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the national security advisor"

Well, you know, there's brush to clear, air guitar to play, clownish dancing to be done, old men to shoot in the face, shoes to be bought...