Leadership
One of the themes of the 2000 election was that sure Bush wasn't so bright, or at least was clueless about the world and foreign policy, but that it would be okay because he would surround himself with smart people who would handle that stuff. Some people tried to point out at the time, and since, that the idea of delegating responsibility for these things was a recipe for disaster. And, now we basically have that disaster - in the middle of an actual war, and in the middle of dealing with the very real threat of international terrorism, we have the State Department and the Pentagon and the CIA playing out a civil war through their intermediaries in Bush's cabinet. As Digby says:
The problem is not just Condi Rice. In fact, it isn't really about her at all. It is about a president who doesn't know what's going on and who no one listens to or respects. His administration is awash in infighting and backstabbing and the result is, as the article says, a dysfunctional foreign policy that is incoherent and ineffectual.
The issue is leadership; the real deal, not the solid-gold dancer jumpsuit version. A puppet whose strings are being pulled in 5 different directions isn't a pretty picture. But, that's what's happening, and it's been clear that it's been happening for quite some time.
He points us to this article about how Rice has just been given a new job - which is apparently simply to do the job she was supposed to be doing already, but was failing to do, which was to be the referee:
The two factions, convinced they had the backing of the president, have pursued contradictory policies, often scheming to undermine each other. Insiders said that Rice rarely kept on top of the intramural bickering, though she seemed to lean more toward the Rumsfeld/Cheney group, and at times recommended policies to the president that he later rejected.
But, at the end of the day - it isn't Rumsfeld, or Powell, or Tenet, or Rice who is supposed to be the leader - it's Bush. Fortunately some senators, even Republican senators, are starting to figure this out:
President Bush has lost control of Iraq policy because of infighting among administration officials, the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday.
The administration also came under criticism from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for being unwilling to create a real international coalition and alienating governments everywhere. "This is haphazard, shotgun, shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy," the Massachusetts senator said.
The committee leaders urged Bush to take charge of U.S. postwar policy in Iraq.
"The president has to be the president, over the vice president and over these secretaries," the chairman, Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Added the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware: "There's no clear articulation within this administration of what the goals, what the message is, what the plan is. You have this significant division within the administration between the Powells and the Rumsfelds."
sfgate.com
Senators denounce Bush's performance as war president
Rice Fails to Repair Rifts, Officials Say
Cabinet Rivalries Complicate Her Role
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has a strong bond with President Bush, but some fault her for not ensuring Bush's wishes are carried out. (Paul J. Richards -- AFP)
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By Glenn Kessler and Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 12, 2003; Page A01
Last week, the White House announced that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had been given the new responsibility of managing the struggling effort to rebuild Iraq. In the words of one official, Rice would "crack the whip, frankly."
The announcement was met by puzzlement throughout the foreign policy community: Isn't that what the national security adviser is supposed to do in the first place?
washingtonpost.com
Even members of Rice's staff expressed frustration. The NSC and State Department staffers were stunned to learn, for example, that the Pentagon, with the approval of the vice president, had flown controversial Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi into southern Iraq after Bush had opposed giving Chalabi special treatment.
Some of Powell's key lieutenants, who had gone along with the president's decision to give the Pentagon the principal postwar role, were frustrated first by the Defense Department's refusal to include them -- and then Rice's unwillingness to intercede.
"Everything went back to Washington, where it became tangled up in the bureaucratic food fights," said the official who served in Iraq. "Absolutely everything." |
