"Absence of clear lines of authority from Washington..."

The White House is having trouble finding someone who wants the job of coordinator or "czar" of Iraq and Afghanistan wars. No one wants the job. Maybe a few years back someone might have wanted it but not now. (Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor)

Does anybody wonder why?

"One of the problems in Iraq from the beginning – and really even before we entered Iraq – has been this lack of sufficient integration and coordination between the military and political tasks," says Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who advised the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq on governance in 2004. "The disjunctive military and political efforts have been a factor in our lack of success, as has the absence of clear lines of authority from Washington."

And we leave the soldier in the picture above out there keeping watch way into the night. It's a damn shame!

theteach