The Guy Who Failed Points Fingers

ThinkProgress had a piece the other day about Stephen Hadley visiting the Hill and blaming the military for the failure in Iraq.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) shifted his position on Iraqin a speech on the Senate floor, where he called for a reduction of theU.S. military presence. After the speech, National Security AdviserStephen Hadley attempted to “calm Republican waters” over Iraq with avisit to the Hill, but his efforts “failed and appeared to some GOPlawmakers to be an effort to put the blame for Iraq War failures on the military.”

Stephen Hadley … Stephen Hadley. Isn’t he the guy who was supposed to be doing all the things the new Iraq War Czar has now been doing? As I recall, neither Hadley nor his former boss could hack that job.

So here we are again, 3 years later, trying to appoint someone inNational Security Council who can do what the National Security Advisoris supposed to do. Sure, this time it’s Stephen Hadley, and not hisformer boss, Condi, who is not up to the task. But the reason is thesame.

We taxpayers pay a National Security Advisor to make sure thatsomeone mediates the opinions and agendas of the many strong-willedpeople running our foreign policy. We pay that person to make sure thatour foreign policy is managed well. But once again, the person in the position is not up to the task.

At some point, we need to face the overriding management issue. Isthe problem that Condi and Hadley are incompetent (yes, partly)? Butthis constant shuffling, this search to find someone who can put unityto our foreign policy approach, suggests another problem. It’s not justthat Condi and Hadley are incompetent. It’s that Bush himself can’t seethe issue with the requisite clarity to empower his National SecurityAdvisor to do the job well.

In fact, you could say the Iraq failure rests most heavily on Hadley’s and Rice’s shoulders.

Very brave of him, blaming this one the military.