The new team

Here is a little about our new ambassador to Iraq:

"Crocker's experience and his vast knowledge of Middle Eastern cultures, history, and languages make him one of the State Department's leading experts on Middle Eastern affairs. He has received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. In January 2002, he was appointed interim envoy to the new government of Afghanistan, and was confirmed as Ambassador to Pakistan in October 2004."

Now you may wonder why such an ideal candidate for that job has not been sent there already. Maybe, just maybe, its because he publicly opposed the invasion and warned about the dangers of civil war back in the beginning. Crocker is one of the State Department and CIA experts who publicly, and in writing, contradicted the picture painted by Bush and his neocons. They did not get much publicity but I remember at the time thinking how much more likely they were to be right than the hard sell from Bush.

Lieutenant General David Petraeus has taken over the military leadership in Iraq. He's been lavishly praised so you might wonder: since he's so good, why hasn't he been sent to Iraq already. Well, maybe, just maybe it because he contradicted Rumsfield's policy. Petraeus literally wrote the book (an Army manual) on insurgency warfare. To this day Bush has a hard time admitting that we are stuck trying to put down the tar baby of insurgency. Bush prefers to call it terrorism and slyly link it to 9 -11. Petraeus knows that the insurgents are using terrorist tactics but that the people who attacked us on 9-11 were not Iraqis and and that currently Al Queida is only a small part of the Iraq problem.

At last, Bush is using the talent he should have been using all along. Its a stunning retreat for Bush.