The White House really wants to us to believe that everything is going well in Iraq. When anyone points to the ongoing fighting, the daily, violent attacks on our troops, the infrastructure problems, the missing WMD, the riots, the lack of international cooperation, or the escalating costs, the administration fires back that we’re only focusing on the negative.
Never mind the 20 attacks on U.S. soldiers a day, we’re told; look at the school that just opened up. Pay no attention to the rioting Iraqis who can’t find jobs, the administration says; look at the oil production we’ve helped create.
It might be easier to believe that the administration was truly satisfied with our progress in Iraq if the White House didn’t keep changing its mind about who’s in charge.
After the end of “major combat operations” in May, the White House (or more accurately, Donald Rumsfeld) tapped former Gen. Jay Garner to head up post-war Iraq. This was clearly a disaster; Garner had no sense on how to engage in nation building.
Careful to shift gears without admitting the folly of their approach, the administration then tapped Paul Bremer, who actually does have nation building experience. Yet, with all due respect to Ambassador Bremer, Iraq continues to be moving towards peace and stability very slowly.
Without admitting that things still aren’t going as well as they’d like, the White House has decided to shift gears — again — and create what’s called the “Iraq Stabilization Group.” The group will be run by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
If you’re the White House, you must realize that this is a tough spin. How does one argue simultaneously that progress is terrific but we feel the need to reorganize the power structure every three months?
The creation of the Iraq Stabilization Group also shifts responsibility directly to the White House. Under Rice’s direction, the group will manage Iraqi affairs from Washington.
One administration official told the New York Times, “This is as close as anyone will come to acknowledging that it’s not working.”
This shift is also a move to take Iraqi reconstruction away from the internal fight between the Defense and State Departments. As Kevin Drum noted this morning, Garner was a Defense pick, and Bremer was a State pick. By putting Rice at the helm, Iraq is taken out of the tug-a-war between Rumsfeld and Colin Powell.
Rumsfeld has to cede some power, because Bremer, up until now, has still had to answer to the Defense Department. Bremer now has a key deputy on Rice’s Iraq Stabilization Group, offering him the power to go around the Pentagon.
And Powell has had to give up some authority, once again, because it will be the White House, not the State Department, in charge of post-war Iraq. (Of course, thanks to Rumsfeld and Cheney, the State Department has been shut out of the process all along.)
Ultimately, I’m looking at this as Plan C (with Garner as Plan A and Bremer as Plan B). My biggest fear is: What’s Plan D?