March 17, 2008

Teamwork

Yep. That's what you call it:

The account that emerges from those interviews, and from access to previously unpublished documents, makes clear that Mr. Bremer’s decree reversed an earlier plan - one that would have relied on the Iraqi military to help secure and rebuild the country, and had been approved at a White House meeting that Mr. Bush convened just 10 weeks earlier.

The interviews show that while Mr. Bush endorsed Mr. Bremer's plan in the May 22 meeting, the decision was made without thorough consultations within government, and without the counsel of the secretary of state or the senior American commander in Iraq, said the commander, Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan. The decree by Mr. Bremer, who is known as Jerry, prompted bitter infighting within the government and the military, with recriminations continuing to this day.

Colin L. Powell, the secretary of state and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was never asked for advice, and was in Paris when the May 22 meeting was held.

Mr. Powell, who views the decree as a major blunder, later asked Condoleezza Rice, who was serving as Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, for an explanation.

"I talked to Rice and said, 'Condi, what happened?'" he recalled. "And her reaction was: 'I was surprised too, but it is a decision that has been made and the president is standing behind Jerry's decision. Jerry is the guy on the ground.' And there was no further debate about it."

Posted by binky at March 17, 2008 09:14 AM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs | Iraq | Military Affairs | Politics


Comments

So, government by the fiat of Donald Rumsfeld. That turned out brilliantly, didn't it?

Bush and Rice couldn't organize a one-car parade it seems - and yet they held the primary management positions for a war ...

And of course there are many, many examples of behavior like this. Suskind notes in The One Percent Doctring that Bush repeatedly tried to cut our ties to Chalabi in 2003, but the DOD ignored him and that their activities “bordered on insubordination" (page 313). He ordered Rice to bring them into line, but of course she didn't or couldn't. Not a shock since Bush and Rice had created a dysfunctional decision-making arrangement. As Armitage noted after he left the government, "There was never any policy process to break, by Condi or anyone else. There was never one from the start. Bush didn’t want one, for whatever reason. One was never started.” (Suskind, 225).

Posted by: Armand at March 17, 2008 10:31 AM | PERMALINK
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