{"id":282,"date":"2007-04-30T09:42:47","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T14:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=282"},"modified":"2007-04-30T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2007-04-30T15:02:37","slug":"cheney-is-the-iraq-war-czar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Cheney is the Iraq War Czar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>There are signs that 2007 may be<\/title>There are signs that 2007 may be shaping up to be <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=209\">one of those audacious,  off-election-cycle Bush administration years<\/a> in the tradition of 2003  (invasion and de-Baathification of Iraq) and 2005 (successive pro-Shiite  elections in Iraq).<\/p>\n<p>The governing Shiite coalition in Iraq is growing increasingly strident.\u00c2\u00a0  According to the <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/04\/25\/AR2007042503076_pf.html\"> Washington Post<\/a> <\/em>and the <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/04\/28\/washington\/28prexy.html?em&#038;ex=1177905600&#038;en=28c3ca95e0471f1e&#038;ei=5087\"> New York Times<\/a><\/em>,<em> <\/em>Iraqi Shiites appear to be stalling parliamentary  passage of the Right Arabist &#8220;benchmarks&#8221; (re-Baathification, constitutional  revisions, provincial elections) generated by former American Ambassador to Iraq  Zalmay Khalilzad.<\/p>\n<p>Shiites are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenewanatolian.com\/tna-25932.html\">backing  centralization of Iraq&#8217;s oil industry<\/a>, reflected in the draft of the  hydrocarbons law, but this is less a concession to Sunni Arab sentiment than a  significant <a href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/NR\/exeres\/B623B1FE-266E-4CA4-ABC3-14F71E8CB8EB.htm\"> blow to Kurdish demands for autonomy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(Turkey is obviously in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=65886\">a huff  about the Kurdish autonomy<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/b97d4b18-f66e-11db-9812-000b5df10621.html\"> tensions are high with the US<\/a>, but Maliki&#8217;s Shiite coalition and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/d19df9b0-f680-11db-9812-000b5df10621.html\"> Turkey&#8217;s strident generals<\/a> can surely find common ground in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=45\">opposition to Kurdish  control of Kirkuk<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn&#8217;t Cheney say as much to Turkey&#8217;s Chief of  General Staff Gen.Ya\u00c5\u0178ar B\u00c3\u00bcy\u00c3\u00bckanit when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=66268&#038;mailtofriend=1\"> the two met in February<\/a>?).<\/p>\n<p>Maliki is even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/04\/29\/AR2007042901728_pf.html\"> moving against some of the Sunni security forces<\/a>, including some of those  favored by <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=158\">fiercely  anti-Sadrist<\/a> Right Arabist elements of the US military brass.<\/p>\n<p>It is surely no coincidence that Right Zionists in Washington are warming to  Iraq&#8217;s Shiite Prime Minister Maliki (see my posts <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=274\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=279\">here<\/a>) just as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/04\/28\/AR2007042801163.html\"> Maliki has been snubbed by Saudi King Abdullah<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the US-Saudi relationship looks increasingly tense.\u00c2\u00a0 A <em>New York Times<\/em> profile of Prince Bandar ran under the strange headline, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/04\/29\/washington\/29saudi.html?ref=middleeast\">A  Saudi Prince Tied to Bush is Sounding Off-Key<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The figure who undoubtedly sounds &#8220;off-key&#8221; to Cheney is <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=267\">Saudi King Abdullah<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Times<\/em> profile on Bandar painted an accurate picture of an  &#8220;Ambassador&#8221; who no longer speaks for his country.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Prince Bandar&#8230; may no longer be able to serve as an unerring beacon of  \tSaudi intent.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The problem is that Bandar has been pursuing a policy that was music to the  \tears of the Bush administration, but was not what King Abdullah had in mind  \tat all,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Martin S. Indyk, a former United States ambassador to Israel  \twho is now head of the Brookings Institution\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Saban Center for Middle East  \tPolicy.<\/p>\n<p>Of course it is ultimately the king \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and not the prince \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who makes the  \tfinal call on policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In any ordinary country, it would go without saying that the King, not the  Ambassador, makes policy.\u00c2\u00a0 But Bandar is not merely a civil servant.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he is a son of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at a time when the  future of Saudi royal succession remains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/articlePrint?articleId=USL0455710220070430\">a  matter of considerable speculation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If National Security Council Adviser Stephen Hadley is having trouble finding  someone willing to serve as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/04\/30\/washington\/30hadley.html?_r=1&#038;hp=&#038;adxnnl=0&#038;adxnnlx=1177924854-J248QP5OEj1i3F3giH8qNg&#038;pagewanted=all\"> Iraq War Czar<\/a> the reason is not difficult to discern: Vice President Cheney  already has the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are signs that 2007 may beThere are signs that 2007 may be shaping up to be one of those audacious, off-election-cycle Bush administration years in the tradition of 2003 (invasion and de-Baathification of Iraq) and 2005 (successive pro-Shiite elections in Iraq). The governing Shiite coalition in Iraq is growing increasingly strident.\u00c2\u00a0 According to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,11,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}