The Last Big Push On Iraq
CBS News reporter Charles Wolfson is a former Tel Aviv bureau chief for CBS News who now covers the State Department.
President Bush is beginning the New Year by installing a new team in senior positions for what may be the last chance he has to implement a plan to achieve "victory," the word his spokesman, Tony Snow, used to describe the president's goal in Iraq.
Mr. Bush will unveil details of his plan, informally dubbed "the new way forward," in a speech to the nation next week. By that time he will have tapped new leadership to head diplomatic and military operations and oversee developments in Iraq during the last two years of his presidency. At the forefront of the diplomatic realignment, John Negroponte was named as Deputy Secretary of State, the department's No. 2 job. Ambassador Ryan Crocker is expected to take over the embassy in Baghdad, while its current leader, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, heads to New York to lead America's mission to the United Nations.
On the military side, Adm. William Fallon will become head of Central Command, replacing Gen. John Abizaid, and Gen. David Petraeus will assume command of American forces inside Iraq, succeeding Gen. George Casey. Last month Robert Gates became Secretary of Defense following the departure of Donald Rumsfeld.
Negroponte, currently Director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level position, took the deputy's post at State for several reasons, officials say. A career foreign service officer, Negroponte joined the Foreign Service in 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was president. He has been described by officials as "a diplomat's diplomat" and he's headed America's diplomatic efforts in the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras and at the United Nations. In making the appointment, Mr. Bush noted Negroponte was also "the first ambassador to a free Iraq" and was taking the post at State at this "crucial" moment.
Senior officials say Negroponte, in addition to overseeing the Iraq portfolio, will also be heavily involved on other issues including North Korea and China as well as internal management at State. The deputy's post has been vacant since last summer, and the department badly needs leadership on day-to-day issues, according to many career officers. Negroponte, who called this post "the opportunity of a lifetime" for a Foreign Service officer, clearly knows what's needed within the bureaucratic ranks.
Someone familiar with Negroponte's views says that while he may be uncertain about whether more American troops will change the equation inside Iraq, he also does not think it is a good idea to withdraw large numbers of troops from Iraq, at least in the near term.
Crocker, who served as Negroponte's deputy in Baghdad, is now U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan. Crocker speaks Arabic fluently and has headed U.S. embassies in Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait. He has dealt with Iraq's political leadership and clearly can get up to speed on the current situation quickly.
Amidst the strong debate about the direction of Iraq policy and the controversy over whether or not to put more American troops into Iraq, Mr. Bush has rearranged senior members of his national security team in time to implement his next moves. One has to assume they are aware of and are on board with his upcoming policy announcements.
While these moves reflect the president's management style, the wild card remains the Iraqis themselves. The biggest questions for which Mr. Bush really has no answers revolve around whether the Iraqi political leadership is up to the job and whether Iraqis themselves can take over management of their own security before Mr. Bush's presidency comes to an end.
By Charles M. Wolfson
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. President Bush is beginning the New Year by installing a new team in senior positions for what may be the last chance he has to implement a plan to achieve "victory," the word his spokesman, Tony Snow, used to describe the president's goal in Iraq.
Mr. Bush will unveil details of his plan, informally dubbed "the new way forward," in a speech to the nation next week. By that time he will have tapped new leadership to head diplomatic and military operations and oversee developments in Iraq during the last two years of his presidency. At the forefront of the diplomatic realignment, John Negroponte was named as Deputy Secretary of State, the department's No. 2 job. Ambassador Ryan Crocker is expected to take over the embassy in Baghdad, while its current leader, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, heads to New York to lead America's mission to the United Nations.
On the military side, Adm. William Fallon will become head of Central Command, replacing Gen. John Abizaid, and Gen. David Petraeus will assume command of American forces inside Iraq, succeeding Gen. George Casey. Last month Robert Gates became Secretary of Defense following the departure of Donald Rumsfeld.
Negroponte, currently Director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level position, took the deputy's post at State for several reasons, officials say. A career foreign service officer, Negroponte joined the Foreign Service in 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was president. He has been described by officials as "a diplomat's diplomat" and he's headed America's diplomatic efforts in the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras and at the United Nations. In making the appointment, Mr. Bush noted Negroponte was also "the first ambassador to a free Iraq" and was taking the post at State at this "crucial" moment.
Senior officials say Negroponte, in addition to overseeing the Iraq portfolio, will also be heavily involved on other issues including North Korea and China as well as internal management at State. The deputy's post has been vacant since last summer, and the department badly needs leadership on day-to-day issues, according to many career officers. Negroponte, who called this post "the opportunity of a lifetime" for a Foreign Service officer, clearly knows what's needed within the bureaucratic ranks.
Someone familiar with Negroponte's views says that while he may be uncertain about whether more American troops will change the equation inside Iraq, he also does not think it is a good idea to withdraw large numbers of troops from Iraq, at least in the near term.
Crocker, who served as Negroponte's deputy in Baghdad, is now U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan. Crocker speaks Arabic fluently and has headed U.S. embassies in Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait. He has dealt with Iraq's political leadership and clearly can get up to speed on the current situation quickly.
Amidst the strong debate about the direction of Iraq policy and the controversy over whether or not to put more American troops into Iraq, Mr. Bush has rearranged senior members of his national security team in time to implement his next moves. One has to assume they are aware of and are on board with his upcoming policy announcements.
While these moves reflect the president's management style, the wild card remains the Iraqis themselves. The biggest questions for which Mr. Bush really has no answers revolve around whether the Iraqi political leadership is up to the job and whether Iraqis themselves can take over management of their own security before Mr. Bush's presidency comes to an end.
By Charles M. Wolfson
Go see what it's like to kill someone and to be a part of a group of people who are being killed.
Also, pay for the war yourself! If you support this war you should be the one paying for it. Start shelling out your earnings to the IRS now!
My daughter's friend said it best: "If they only wanted Saddam gone, why didn't they just arrest him before the war?"
My family and I do not want to have anything to do with this fascist government. We want the heads of it and those responsible for putting us on the path into fascism arrested, tried, convicted and hung. Simple as that.
Those who ordered the bombing of civilian targets in Iraq (500 pound bombs in residential neighborhoods) must be brought to justice, as well as those who followed those orders and, indeed, dropped bombs and fired missles into civilian neighborhoods.
Stop this war now! Stop following orders to kill Iraqi people! Get out of Iraq now!
If Mr Bush does not back down from the ridiculous notion of a "victory", his delusion must be stopped.
If we are a democracy, our democratic leadership has to step up now. Mr Bush will not back down (remember that he speaks to a different father). Our brave soldiers are being picked off on a daily basis. For what?
There is no "plan", there never was one except in la-la land ("we will be met with flowers and ..."). There was no attention to history (reasons why Bush41 did not go to Baghdad; history of the Middle East). Just willful ignorance and banality.
As our soldiers continue being targeted in a cross-fire, what is the solution? Hear Mr Bush's plan on Wednesday, demand accountable milestones by the month; if no progress and no reversal, impeach for gross violations of the US Constitution after six months.
If the Democratic Congress oppose W for the escalation then they become the fall guy to blame for the debacle. How could they as a whole support an escalation after that election?
If the troops go in and the plan fails anyway (likely) the Sen. McCain get the hex because this is the McCain doctrine after all (sending more of our young).
El Presidente will still be fighting the war clear through the rest of his term and the presidential election and continuing to hope against hope that somehow the phoenix will arise from the ashes. Wishing that the chants and smoke and mirrors and unknown events can somehow change the fickle tide of public opinion.
It is clear that Bush would not listen to any opinion to end the war while he is an moron and blood thirsty evil.
Waiting two years let him to leave? It is too long for american people. Impeach him now.
In the meantime we let him get everybody killed for nothing.
By the way, if you haven't noticed, Bush doesn't care in the slightest. He doesn't.