... For example, it is stunning that three-plus years into this war — a war that requires a high level of coordination between security, intelligence and reconstruction operations, and their integration with political negotiations between Iraq's competing factions — we still do not have any single individual in overall control of the war effort. Neither Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad nor Gen. George Casey, our senior political and military leaders in Baghdad, is in charge.
This is a striking violation of one of the most basic principles of war: unity of command. Apparently neither the State nor Defense departments wants to yield bureaucratic turf, and President Bush doesn't feel inclined to force them...
Take another example. In a championship football game, would you constantly rotate your star players in and out of the game? Of course not. But that's exactly what the administration has done with its best generals. Three years into the war, where are generals like David Petraeus, David Barno and Peter Chiarelli — all of whom earned reputations for their skill in Afghanistan or Iraq? Petraeus was ordered back to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Barno has inexplicably been retired, while Chiarelli — who is leading the do-or-die fight in Baghdad — is scheduled to be replaced in December...
Finally, we have the homefront effort — or, I should say, the lack of one. Not long ago, an Army officer remarked that "The United States is not at war. The Army is at war. The United States is at the mall." ...
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