A very good piece...
By Richard A. Clarke
The Washington Post
In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such as the deputy secretary of state (empty since Robert B. Zoellick left for investment bank Goldman Sachs) and the deputy director of national intelligence (with Gen. Michael V. Hayden now CIA director). And with the nation involved in a messy war spiraling toward a bad conclusion, the key deputies and Cabinet members and advisers are all focusing on one issue, at the expense of all others: Iraq.
National Security Council veteran Rand Beers has called this the "7-year-old's soccer syndrome" - just like little kids playing soccer, everyone forgets their particular positions and responsibilities and runs like a herd after the ball.
In the end, there are only 12 seats at the conference table in the White House Situation Room, and the key players' schedules mean that they can seldom meet there together in person or on secure video conference for more than about 10 hours each week. When issues don't receive first-tier consideration, they can slip by for months. I learned this firsthand: In the early days of the Bush administration, I called for an urgent meeting to discuss the threat al-Qaeda posed to the United States. The Cabinet-level meeting eventually took place - but not until Sept. 4, 2001.
Without the distraction of the Iraq war, the administration would have spent this past year - indeed, every year since Sept. 11, 2001 - focused on al-Qaeda. But beyond al-Qaeda and the broader struggle for peaceful coexistence with (and within) Islam, seven key "fires in the in-box" national security issues remain unattended, deteriorating and threatening, all while Washington's grown-up 7-year-olds play herd ball with Iraq.
As the president contemplates sending even more U.S. forces into the Iraqi sinkhole, he should consider not only the thousands of fatalities, the tens of thousands of casualties and the hundreds of billions of dollars already lost. He must also weigh the opportunity cost of taking his national security barons off all the other critical problems they should be addressing - problems whose windows of opportunity are slamming shut, unheard over the wail of Baghdad sirens. More on the story..
Hope everyone enjoy your New Years festivities. Be back with a new posting on January 2! Cheers!
3 comments:
I saw Anderson Cooper's encore on the Pakistani-Afgans border and Afghanistan, Taliban war.
" However, if there is a solution, it lies on the other side of the Khyber Pass where a sanctuary has emerged, a Taliban-like state within a state in western Pakistan. Dealing with that problem is more than Washington has been willing or able to handle, for it involves the complex issue of who governs nuclear-armed Pakistan and how."
" Getting Pakistan to do more would require a major sustained effort by senior U.S. officials, including addressing the longstanding tensions with India. Because of Iraq, Washington's national security gurus do not have the hours in their days to manage that - nor the troops needed to secure Afghanistan. "
" As the president contemplates sending even more U.S. forces into the Iraqi sinkhole, he should consider not only the thousands of fatalities, the tens of thousands of casualties and the hundreds of billions of dollars already lost. He must also weigh the opportunity cost of taking his national security barons off all the other critical problems they should be addressing - problems whose windows of opportunity are slamming shut, unheard over the wail of Baghdad sirens.
The Iraqi sink hole.......appropriate.
Also this administration failed to realize you are going to have to deal with more than Iraq and Afghanistan to solve the problems.
If Bush sends more troops thousands more will surely die. This time it's not just the President's fault it's all Americans fault. 3000 of our brave soldiers dead because they are caught in the middle of Iraq's civil war. We invaded Iraq based on lies and stealing now our young men/women are paying for it with their lives. Bush isn't a military man so he wouldn't understand what combat is like. Cheney used a loop hole to skip out of serving and then used his wife's unborn baby as an excuse. With these two weak coward no wonder we're in the mess we're in.
The Gerbil doesn't have a strategy for Iraq. He is hemming and hawing the media and the public. He will send more troops and that will sealed his fate for impeachment and disgrace his legacy.. The Gerbil is like the Pharoah and we know what to the Pharoah in the end...
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