Re-Arranging The Deck Chairs

George W. Bush seems ready to send more troops to Iraq, and he's preparing his change of strategy with numerous personnel changes that sound like a random game of musical chairs. Unindicted war criminal John Negroponte moves from the office of director of national intelligence to the number two post behind Condolezza Rice at the State Department. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khailizad moves to the United Nations ambassador's post, and Ryan Crocker, the current U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, is to succeed Khailizad. Retired Vice Admiral Michael McConnell, it's been reported, is to replace Negroponte as intelligence director, despite the fact that he's been out of government service for ten years. Even more confusing is the shakeup at the military leadership in the Pentagon, which I won't even attempt to chronicle here.

In announcing their opposition to a troop "surge" in Iraq, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have drawn a line in the sand, and the tone for the next two years in Washington has been set. Congressional Democrats refuse to go along with Bush's Iraq policy and Bush refuses to care what they think.