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One, Two, Many War Czars!
It wasn't long ago that the White House couldn't find anyone to become its "war czar," a brand-new position created in the spring by President Bush to oversee interagency coordination for Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, the war czar has an apparent under-czar.
Crack TPMmuckraker intern Tanvir Vahora noticed that President Bush announced today that Brigadier General Terry Wolff, a veteran (pdf) of the not-going-so-great U.S. training effort for the Iraqi military, will become Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan Policy Implementation. This is apparently a deputy position to War Czar Douglas Lute, a low-key figure whose most prominent role so far came when he lobbied the Senate in July to defeat Democratic antiwar amendments to the defense authorization bill. Most recently, Lute went on NPR to muse that it might be time to look at reimplementing the draft.
The difference between the two posts? Lute's title is Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, and he outranks Wolff by two stars. The substantive difference between the two jobs is anyone's guess: neither actually makes policy on the wars, but implementing decisions made by the White House on the wars is the key responsibility of both positions.
If it turns out that Wolff is in fact Lute's replacement -- we've got calls out to the White House to see what exactly the story is, and we'll update you when we hear something -- the war czar job is losing prestige after only two months in existence. If not, don't expect many people to understand what Wolff's actual responsibilities will be, as Lute's aren't entirely clear. In any case, the proliferation of czars will surely lead to a complete turnaround in the war's fortunes.
Update: Just heard from a National Security Council press aide (who wouldn't give his name). Wolff is one of Lute's deputies. Lute hasn't lost his job. And it's still unclear what exactly Wolff's brief is.
Late Update: NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe explains that Wolff's job will be to make sure that sub-cabinet officials across the interagency process in Washington and Baghdad follow through on Lute's demands to get Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker the resources they need.
Comments (29)
Sorghum Crow wrote on August 15, 2007 1:20 PM:My guess is that Lute will be the czar for the Iran invasion, while Wolff works on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sorghum Crow wrote on August 15, 2007 1:22 PM:(this is in jest, but might just turn out to be too true....)
Vice Versa, that is. Wolff for Iran invasion.
jimijazz wrote on August 15, 2007 1:41 PM:All these phoney appointments and titles. It's like we're living in a third world banana republic.
jimijazz wrote on August 15, 2007 1:42 PM:All these phoney appointments and titles. It's like we're living in a third world banana republic.
Anonymous wrote on August 15, 2007 1:43 PM:General Wolff's job will be to keep General Lute from saying "DRAFT" during future interviews.
jimijazz wrote on August 15, 2007 1:44 PM:All these phoney appointments and titles. It's like we're living in a third world banana republic
two beers wrote on August 15, 2007 1:57 PM:Well, there weren't any WMD, but it looks like there's evidence of WCP (War Czar Proliferation).
JD21 wrote on August 15, 2007 2:00 PM:How will the real news come out once Murdoch takes over print media?
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Some_see_Murdoch_preparing_for_Journal_0815.html
He's going to try to do to the NYT what he did to CNN - make it compete to be a right-wing mouthpiece. When will we fight back? First things first. We need new politicians who will really represent us. We need Obama. He is standing up to Fox already. We need to give him more power.
Jake H. wrote on August 15, 2007 2:04 PM:We're going to need a czar czar to coordinate all this coordination!
If Dilbert's boss ran a war, I'm reasonably certain it would look exactly like this.
two beers wrote on August 15, 2007 2:05 PM:I prefer "war tsar": it reads tougher than the sissy "czar," and more effectively communicates the tough guy image that will surely convince the terrists to hand over the keys to their oil wells. I'm afraid that if we stick with "czar", the terrists win.
lysias wrote on August 15, 2007 2:27 PM:I don't think you put a two-star in charge of as major an operation as an attack on Iran.
protector wrote on August 15, 2007 2:30 PM:When Murdoch takes of the WSJ, everyone is going to be reading the Financial Times...
http://www.ft.com/home/us
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
lysias wrote on August 15, 2007 2:37 PM:I switched from the WSJ to the FT two or three years ago, after I decided the WSJ had been lying to me about Iraq.
Michael Lafferty wrote on August 15, 2007 2:46 PM:'Generally' speaking, it's a small point, but in the US Army, a two-star refers to a Major General. Lute is a three-star, a Lieutenant General, and the 'new guy'—Wolff—is a one-star, a Brigadier General.
Hopefully, this will clear up any 'general' confusion…
barkleyg wrote on August 15, 2007 2:48 PM:"In any case, the proliferation of czars will surely lead to a complete turnaround in the war's fortunes."
This one is sooo simple. It will lead to King George having MORE people to blame for HIS failures!!
foggylady wrote on August 15, 2007 2:48 PM:Czars, huh?
Czars plus ineffective beauracrats interested only in padding their own pockets
plus a government spying on its own citizens,
using torture at whim, while the infrastructure of the country collapses
and the non-elected occupant of the WH borrows heavily from other nations to play at world conquest..
Yep....we have become Russia.
Jeff wrote on August 15, 2007 2:52 PM:(
Jimjazz, what do you mean by "like"? The only difference is our economy doesn't hinge on the export of bananas.
barkleyg wrote on August 15, 2007 2:52 PM:Foggylady
You forgot about FAUX News doing a great imitation of Pravda!!
lysias wrote on August 15, 2007 3:09 PM:Sorry I thought Wolff was a Major General. But my point about a two-star not being put in charge of something like an attack on Iran has all the more force for a one-star.
JD21 wrote on August 15, 2007 3:30 PM:It's not a waste of time. It's a rejection of the Fox-Republican method of politics for future generations. That the Fox-Republicans officials and politicians (fops) even tried this happened because we didn't show them that the worst case scenario is jail. As demonstrated by the recent pardon, the fops clearly think jail is not an option for their top dogs. They will continue to believe it and try again if we don't show them they are wrong. If Rove broke the law, he must, for the good of America, be held accountable. Rove is not above the law. He is not better than ordinary citizens. He should not get a free get out of jail free pass handed out by the most recent Republican top crook.
America haven't you had enough already? Isn't it time to make a statement. To draw a line in the sand for now and ever against this type of rotten fop behavior? The fops have shown they do whatever they can get away with. Show them they can't get away with this type of behavior or I promise they will keep doing it. Rove and many of his ilk are relatively young. Just like Rumsfeld and Cheney were young when they were part of the Nixon Administration.
foggylady wrote on August 15, 2007 3:31 PM:ty. barkleg...good point
And Murdoch seems to be oriented to the idea, doesn't he?
Analogy ( or reality ) also noted by Sidney Blumenthal at Salon :
" He sought to subordinate the entire federal government to his goal of creating a permanent Republican majority. Every department and agency has been subject to an intense and thorough politicization. Indeed, Rove's ambitious plan was tantamount to a proto-Sovietization. Even science has been suppressed in the name of the party line, recalling the Lysenko episode. "
urbin' wrote on August 15, 2007 3:58 PM:http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/08/13/karl_rove/index.html
"...a two-star refers to a Major General. Lute is a three-star, a Lieutenant General...
Hopefully, this will clear up any 'general' confusion…"
I have a specific question. A LIEUTENANT General outranks a MAJOR General? In general, that's FUBAR.
I second the czar czar suggestion. He (she? heavens!) should also be in charge of ordering pizza pizza from Little Caesar's.
urbino wrote on August 15, 2007 3:58 PM:"...a two-star refers to a Major General. Lute is a three-star, a Lieutenant General...
Hopefully, this will clear up any 'general' confusion…"
I have a specific question. A LIEUTENANT General outranks a MAJOR General? In general, that's FUBAR.
I second the czar czar suggestion. He (she? heavens!) should also be in charge of ordering pizza pizza from Little Caesar's.
lysias wrote on August 15, 2007 4:15 PM:To add to the confusion, historically, in the German Army, a Generalmajor was the equivalent of our Brigadier General; a Generalleutnant the equivalent of our Major General; a Generaloberst (i.e., Colonel General) the equivalent of our Lieutenant General; and a Generalfeldmarschall the equivalent of our (four-star) General.
Hermann Göring was given the still higher rank of Reichsmarschall.
mo2 wrote on August 15, 2007 5:09 PM:Is anyone watching the movement of certain industries out of the US and into UAE and Saudi Arabia? Like chemicals, plastics, weapons manufacture, guidance electronics, etc? Is anyone trying to stop Cheney from simply moving his war machine abroad while he invades Iran and sucks the US into using his machine? Other than watching the business section of the Wall Street Journal, I do not know of any way to tally what is taking place. Is there a website that is tracking the war machine companies?
John wrote on August 15, 2007 5:55 PM:It does appear that the USA is turning into pre-Soviet Russia with the inept Czar, charlitans and madmen running the government (Rover and Cheney) and a ruinous sensless war. And everyone knows what happened there. But there is also the element of post-Soviet Stalinist Russia with the politicization of offices, cofirming that appointees are loyal Bushies instead of competent and a war. Stalin survived however and died of old age still at the top, I don't think Bush will be staying at the top though. Hopefully there is a jail cell with his name on it.
Bill wrote on August 15, 2007 7:50 PM:What I can not for the life of me figure out is, WHY, WHY the Democrats and others in power do not see all of the harm and evil being done and NOT do anything about it.
I fear that the USA is truly done for. For even if there is revolution there is really no going back. A new tyrant or possibly state by state fracturing will ensue.
I believe the Secret Service codenames for those two should be Fall Guy 1 and Fall Guy 2. Once the heat gets turned up on Bush, he'll parade them out and make it look like he's replacing the responsible people and that everything will be better. What a sham.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on August 15, 2007 8:54 PM:So when do all these Czars start sacking villages and buying gold enlayed eggs?
uncle vester wrote on August 16, 2007 7:40 AM:Wow, a whole soviet of tsars?