There seems to be some sleight of Douglas Lute’s hand - is he our “War Czar” or not? Last time we heard from the guy, it was in August. He said we might need a draft because our troops were pretty burned out, then he seemed to pull a Houdini and fade away. Didn’t Bush make a big deal about putting Lute in charge of Iraq and Afghanistan? Well, where is he? He’s supposed to have taken over Stephen Hadley’s job which was Condie’s old job, which was to look over the ‘occupations’ we had going and see what was needed. But Condie keep’s showing up on her little surprise visits to Iraq anyway, so why do we need to pay two people for the same job? The economy isn’t in that great of shape, the less we have to borrow the better. So where is Lute? Is he locked up in Dick Cheney’s cave? Is he with Alberto Gonzalez in White-house basement sorting through old emails and deleting the ones mentioning ‘torture’? Maybe he went to visit old Rumsfeld to ask why we went to Iraq with the “army we have” and why didn’t we wait to see if the army even needed to go… Or maybe they are busy looking through Rummy’s prized collection of Abu Garaib photos. When Lute was grilled for the confirmation of his post, Senator Jack Reed asked some serious questions about this new job description for Lute. He was one prophetic guy, I’ll let Reed’s words speak from the Transcript: REED: I’m certainly going to support you. Couldn’t do otherwise. But I don’t think I’m doing you a big favor, to be blunt. My sense if, you step back, your appointment represents a devastating critique of the national security apparatus of this White House, because all you’re being asked to do was what Mr. Hadley and Dr. Rice were supposed to be doing for the last several years: identify problems, coordinate resources, bring them to the attention of the president, get presidential direction. And that has been abysmal. And I think also, too, I’m afraid that your position will be someone who’s there to take the blame… So maybe Bush already blamed Lute and sent him away somewhere else? But isn’t the surge working? They say we only have to babysit in Iraq ten more years to prove the surge works…I guess Douglas Lute is just being very quiet these days, just like his boss, Bush. If only we could use sleight of hand and make Bush and Cheney disappear, better yet, if only we could make them appear — in court charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes or lying, or trying to make a few secret changes to the Constitution. But guess that’s about as elusive as, ummm, say maybe hearing from Doug Lute…
photo credit: www.ksg.harvard.org
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