OK, I'll wade in...

Yes, the interagency is broken. Iraq is a symptom. Maybe Rumsfield, the Alpha Secretary, was the precipitating cause this time. Maybe Cheney perverted the tenuous IA power matrix. But where was/is the President? Where is the leadership? Is this a war or a management exercise?

Unless the Federal bureaucracy, along with other substantive players (multilaterals, NGOs, transnationals), have become too much for one executive, we don't need Congress to legislate an interagency Goldwater Nichols. The NSC reflects the President's preferred management style and follows his lead. We need an effective Commander in Chief.

A real fix will take longer than we have in Iraq.

So, in the meantime, McCain for War Tsar. He's a strong advocate and a credible political/military/civilian leader. And he's kind of old. Old enough to know which heads to knock. Maybe too old for President in 2010, but just right for Deputy President in 2007.

Where's the Churchill for our generation?

SteveO