THE MEDIA'S FAVORITE WAR -- POWELL-RUMSFELD:

Rumsfeld 'resisting' Powell's Iraq team (Times of London, 4/3/2003)

A US official told The Times that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, was resisting State Department appointments to the administration-in-waiting, at least one of whom is already in Kuwait.

He said that the Pentagon had ruled that Mr Rumsfeld should personally approve appointments to the temporary US-British administration, “and there are many people who question his authority to take that decision, including, I assume, the Secretary of State”....

He said that it was unclear how the row would end as the decision-making process was in flux. “The White House has to step in. One of the variables is Mr Tony Blair. Once again, he will be a critical voice in all of this,” he said....

The row boils down to control over policy-making on Iraq in the postwar phase, with the State Department anxious to create an environment that is more acceptable to foreign countries while the Pentagon is anxious to stay in control.

Critics of the Bush Administration’s neo-conservative wing, which dominates the Pentagon, say that its ranks are anxious to build a new Iraq in the image of the United States, using Westernised Iraqi exiles such as Ahmed Chalabi, a favourite of the Pentagon who is disliked by the State Department. The differences over how to involve Mr Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader, have raged for months.

Meanwhile, General Powell and Mr Blair are trying to secure a prominent role for the United Nations in an attempt to avoid further alienating US allies in Europe. State Department moderates are hoping that Mr Blair can [help them] ...

The political reality is that Powell, a true moderate and a canny negotiator, is too cagy to take a firm stand himself, but he will play up the State Department "moderates" (actually leftists) and their foreign allies in order to try to pull President Bush toward what he thinks is the center.

It seems to me that the one weakness in the war plan has been the failure to incorporate Mr. Chalabi and other Iraqi opposition elements into it. I would have had Iraqi-Americans embedded with the units just like the reporters, to translate and talk to the populace and get help identifying the enemy. As territory was seized, I would have put up TV and radio stations broadcasting the opposition's "TV Liberty," and given Iraqis war news and instructions on how to stay out of danger and on how to help the coalition. In reconstruction, I would name Mr. Chalabi an Iraqi chief administrator, reporting to a U.S. authority with a title like "Chief Steward," to manage war-crimes tribunals, humanitarian aid from a U.S.-administered oil revenues trust fund, and the development of a federal system of governance in which most authority resides below the national level.

The inability to reach agreement on a post-war plan has apparently led the President to put off decisions so as not to alienate anyone and damage the war effort. But it will soon be time for the debating to end and decisions to be made. Let's hope President Bush and Prime Minister Blair choose wisely.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at April 3, 2003 9:31 AM