JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY: WITH RICE AT HELM, IRAQ MAY SEE IMPROVEMENTS

JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY: WITH RICE AT HELM, IRAQ MAY SEE IMPROVEMENTS

The White House -- under pressure from Congress, Democrats and the American people -- is trying to build a better, swifter way to put urgently needed resources and people into the Iraq reconstruction effort and clear away some of the bureaucratic hurdles to success.

President Bush has tapped national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to chair a new Iraq Stabilization Group amid Democratic criticism of administration fumbling in postwar Iraq and congressional questioning of the president's proposed $87 billion Iraq spending package.

"Some might see this as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," said one senior administration official, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity. "But it is a serious attempt to make the National Security Council more functional and remove some of the elements that have made it dysfunctional."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with the backing of Vice President Dick Cheney, has long run roughshod over the NSC, the State Department, the CIA and other government agencies, and at times even the wishes of the president himself.

"With this new system, you can control and dampen some of that and make it much more apparent when someone is meddling with policy," the official said, adding, "That way, the White House can run policy instead of this unholy alliance."

The first goal is to get people and money moving into Iraq to bolster civilian administrator Paul Bremer's efforts to get things working again in that beleaguered nation of 24 million citizens.

Bremer will continue to report to the Defense Department, but there is hope that additional staff and resources -- plus having someone in the White House in his corner to clear away obstructions -- will allow him to get on with the job with less interference and second-guessing from the Pentagon.

The question is whether Rice is strong enough to stand firm in the face of a powerful vice president backing a strong defense secretary determined to exercise total control over everything on his horizon. Perhaps, just perhaps, she might be, with some backing from the man from Crawford, Texas.


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Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/editorial/6975370.htm

Just read her statement about Kay's report. She's living in la la land.

That's my entire reaction....uncontrollable laughter.

will she do some good for them.

What shall we call this soap opera -- As the Farce Continues? As the RW Spin Turns?

to report to Congress.

I mean, let's face it, things are majorly fucked up over there. They could send in Celine Dion, Richard Simmons, Kathie Lee or the Tooth Fairy and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.

But elevating a Soviet-affairs specialist to head the Double Secret Probation Iraq Task Force, yeah, that'll make things all better.

Feh.

First I've heard out of this corrupt administration that they've had any missteps at all in this quagmire. It took several thousand dead before they had the gumption to admit it, I'll grant you. Maybe we won't need to see 100,000 dead bodies before they acknowledge that they need help and are willing to share power. But that's a big maybe for this greedy pack of thieves.

"...rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic"

at least one "senior administration official" gets it.