Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Shoot to Kill

Bush, at long last, has changed the rules of engagement for soldiers in Iraq, giving them the order to kill or capture Iranian operatives.

A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the outlines of the Post report and stressed: "The most important job is to protect US troops on the ground and prevent Iran from meddling in Iraqi affairs."

"If we get information about Iranian agents or networks operating inside of Iraq and actively providing weapons or support to insurgents, we are going to go after them," the official said.

"Over the fall, we were receiving additional information indicating Iranians were becoming more and more involved," the official added.

What took Bush so long? This seems basic to me, leading me to wonder if his briefing panels were not shielding him from home truths about the situation in Iraq. This lack of hands on approach is often what leads his adminisration into incompetencies.

Newt Gingrinch recently made some excellent proposals as to how the President should manage Iraq. Here they are, noted by Kate O'Beire in the Corner.

“1.Place General Petraeus in charge of the Iraq campaign and establish that the Ambassador is operating in support of the military commander.

2. Since General Petraeus will now have responsibility for victory in Iraq all elements of achieving victory are within his purview and he should report daily to the White House on anything significant which is not working or is needed

3. Create a deputy chief of staff to the President and appoint a retired four star general or admiral to manage Iraq implementation for the Commander in Chief on a daily basis.

4. Establish that the second briefing (after the daily intelligence brief) the President will get every day is from his deputy chief of staff for Iraq implementation.

5. Establish a War Cabinet which will meet once a week to review metrics of implementation and resolve failures and enforce decisions. The President should chair the War Cabinet personally and his deputy chief of staff for Iraq implementation should prepare the agenda for the weekly review and meeting.”

As someone whose name I've long since forgotten commented some while ago, having Newt in the Presidential race will be a good thing. He'll never win, but his presence will help to raise the level of intelligent policy discourse. Of course, so will Rudy. In fact, seeing Rudy and Newt together, debating issues, will be a real treat.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Martial Arts

posted by Alcibiades @ 6:30 PM