Lt. Gen. Lute new “war czar’
Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute now joins Gen. David Petraeus in having the most thankless task in the U.S. government – trying to win, or at least engineer an acceptable stalemate, in Iraq. Lute is President Bush’s new “war czar,” a title the White House doesn’t care for because it raises questions about what the commander in chief and secretary of defense have been doing all this time, but the name has already stuck. His appointment is a tacit, backdoor admission that the administration has largely bungled the war to date.
Lute’s task is to coordinate military and civilian operations from the Washington end, to knock heads together and cut through bureaucratic rivalries and turf wars to support the war effort. If Petraeus identifies a problem in the morning, Lute is to fix it by afternoon, what the White House calls “same-day service.”
The sole clout he brings to the task is direct access to Bush as an assistant to the president and an impressive resume that includes his most recent tour as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, before that, two years directing combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for Central Command. He has, however, no line or budget authority.
Tellingly, at least five retired generals turned the post down before the White House settled on Lute, according to news accounts.
The bureaucracy is only one obstacle he’ll face. Lute must deal with a Congress where he has only the power of persuasion over fractious Democrats determined to dictate a phased withdrawal by cutting funding.
He’ll get an early taste of what he’s in for on Capitol Hill because the Senate must confirm his change of assignment.
Lute told the White House upfront that he was skeptical of the surge strategy and he is known to believe that the United States should have in place a smaller, lighter, less prominent force structure to undercut the appearance of an occupation and to wean the Iraqi forces away from their dependence on coalition troops.
Certainly everyone wishes Lute to succeed, but this job might have been an even better idea four years ago.