Bush chooses his war czar — just don't call him that

Stephen Hadley has managed, at last, to find someone to take the blame for the failures in Afghanistan and Iraq by appointing Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute as his war czar. This, of course, was supposed to be Stephen Hadley's job but, as things head south in both conflicts, it has become an administration priority to find a scapegoat for the failings.

Bush mouthed the usual tripe he always mouths when he makes a new appointment:

"General Lute is a tremendously accomplished military leader who understands war and government and knows how to get things done," Bush said.

You could take out Lute's name and insert any other and the wording would have been exactly the same.

If he keeps his current rank, as expected, Lute will be in the difficult position of overseeing people who outrank him, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace, a Marine four-star general, and Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq.

Lute's relationship to Vice President Dick Cheney, who has played a major role in shaping U.S. policy in Iraq, also is unclear.

What's interesting about his appointment to a job that almost no-one else wanted, is that he will be required to oversee the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan from 7,000 miles away, which was - of course - the charge Bush made against the Democrats when they tried to tie troop funding to troop withdrawal.

Apparently it's okay to micromanage wars from 7,000 miles away if you're a Bush appointee.

Nor are the Bush regime referring to him as a war czar anymore, he's now a "full-time manager" of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Bush administration have found this role almost impossible to fill with certain people they approached, like retired Marine Corps four-star Gen. Jack Sheehan, going public over what he saw as the White House's "huge shortcomings"in their Iraq strategy.

"What I found in discussions with current and former members of this administration," wrote Sheehan, "is that there is no agreed upon strategic view of the Iraq problem or the region."

And more interesting still, Lute's not even a supporter of Bush's accelerate and surge strategy:

Indeed, in choosing Lute, Bush picked a key internal voice of dissent during the administration review that led to the recent troop buildup in Iraq.

Reflecting the views of other members of the Joint Chiefs, Lute argued that a short-term increase would do little good and that any sustained increase in forces had to be matched by equal emphasis on political and economic steps, according to officials informed about the deliberations.

Lute's selection ends a long White House search for a war czar. Some senior military officers who were approached said they weren't interested.

Are they setting Lute up to be the fall guy? One things for sure, Hadley's now got someone else to blame for things going pear shaped.

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Tags: Bush, Iraq war, war czar, Lute, Stephen Hadley