3 generals spurn war ‘czar’ post

Source: msnbc.com

WASHINGTON - The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.

The White House has not publicly disclosed its interest in creating the position, hoping to find someone President Bush can anoint and announce for the post all at once. Officials said they are still considering options for how to reorganize the White House's management of the two conflicts. If they cannot find a person suited for the sort of specially empowered office they envision, they said, they may have to retain the current structure.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18026723/

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They are looking for someone "to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies." Um, wouldn't that be the president?

for trying to find someone to do his commander in chief job so he can deflect the critism onto him. I wonder if he asked Joe Lieberman?

unca dick and general rummy didn't tell him it would be this HARD.

he is the CIC, he is the 'Decider'?

Oh, I forgot, vacation season is approaching.

the wars over to an "expert," which clearly he's not.

Time for the Dems to put him in the corner (and preferably, in jail) and take over his job.

.. is an official scapegoat.

"We would have WON this thing, had it not been for the oversight of General (Your Name Here), whose strategies eventually proved to be catastrophic ..."

A czar to install democracy in other countries!

Ah, irony is indeed lost on these people.

They happen to be right this one and only time.

on transferring his CIC powers onto someone who is more qualified for the job. I wonder how they talked George into this? They probably used reverse psychology and led him to believe that it was his idea. The very notion that the President would appoint a "czar" to oversee the two combat zones, when he just this year he appointed a new overall commander for the region (an admiral to fight two desert wars, remember). What's wrong with the admiral? Is he sick or something? Did he turn out not to know what the hell he was doing? Will this new "czar" not answer to Bush? Doesn't the current regional commander answer to Bush? What would be the difference between the two?

This is so scary and embarrassing that it isn't even believable. Scary because somebody is trying to tell us that Bush isn't competent to be CIC - and anyone (foreign or domestic) with half a brain can see this clearly...

the USA can't find anyone to run their battles for them?

I am sure they are not the only retired brass that feels the same about Cheney and his merry gang of neocons.

I don't get it; I thought the CEO of blackwater already had that position.

:sarcasm: Think about this, The "Drug Czar" was crated to fight the "War on Drugs" which is making Illegal Drugs much more available, the Education Czar is fighting the war on Education in this country (also very successful).

The we have the Homeland Security Czar, who is fighting to make us less safe Soooooooo...

A "War Czar" would be to fight the "War on Terror," the "Iraq War," and the "Afghan War," thus ensuring that they are never actually won! That way, we can funnel Tons and Tons of Cash to "Private Military Contractors" and the "Military Industrial Complex"

It's a Win-Win-Win proposal if you're a "loyal Bushy.":sarcasm:

Sucks for the rest of us though.

a war ON Iraq cause unca dick and general rummy tol' him he hadda.

So he got out in front of the corporatemediawhore cameras and beat the fucking drums to death and the cmw were smiling, imagining all the ratings.

43 needs to be Impeached and then sent to The Hague and the US CMWs responsible for the enabling of the death and destruction of 43 need to be filed right along with him. And all the many enablers who have blood on their slimey hands..ya know who you are.

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To me the Sec Defense is the War Czar...He runs the Pentagon and services for the Shrub etc... How many more days until the next inauguration???

http://consortiumnews.com/2007/041107.html

The widespread doubts within U.S. military and intelligence circles that George W. Bush’s Iraq War “surge” can succeed were underscored when one of the plan’s architects, retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, was one of three generals to rebuff a White House offer of a new job dubbed “war czar.”

In December, Keane and neoconservative scholar Frederick Kagan promoted the idea of a U.S. military escalation in Iraq as an alternative to the growing consensus in favor of a phased withdrawal of Amercan combat forces.

At the time, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group was advocating a troop drawdown combined with a stronger commitment to training Iraqi forces and renewed talks with Iraq’s neighbors. But Bush bristled at the implied criticism of his work as “war president,” declaring: “This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever.”

Bush countered the momentum behind the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations by latching onto the Keane-Kagan “surge” idea. When the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the two commanders then overseeing the Iraq War, Generals John Abizaid and George Casey, resisted the “surge,” Bush ousted Abizaid and Casey and overruled the Pentagon brass.

:banghead: :hide:

I think this is great news. The military establishment is finally saying no to Junior and to his minders.

Now that's REALLY something to strut about. "Ah'm a war prezdint AND a war czar."

:spray:

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:hi: