Editorial: Staying whose course?

Friday, May 18, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

As President Bush's new "war czar," Lt. Gen . Douglas E. Lute has taken the job that nobody wanted - or, at least, the one nobody else who was asked wanted.

Retired Marine Gen. John Sheehan and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane both declined the White House's offer to take command of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a story by The Washington Post in April, Sheehan said the "very fundamental issue" with the Bush administration's war policy is "they don't know where the hell they are going."

Lute is now the man who will tell them. He ostensibly will oversee all war policy and operations decisions and report directly to Bush. His job will require telling his military superiors and Cabinet members what to do - not an easy task for a three-star general, the Post reports.

Why would Lute accept this job? It likely was self-preservation. As retired military officials, Sheehan and Keane had nothing to lose by refusing Bush's offer. But Lute, a senior active-military officer, probably doesn't have that luxury. An active-duty official typically accepts a White House post when it is offered, or retires.

Some of Lute's ideas about attaining success in Iraq have some Bush insiders wondering just whose war policy the United States will be following, the Post reports. Lute, former operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was a leader among those who resisted when Bush called for the most recent troop surge. And a cornerstone of Lute's plan will rely on pressing for political and economic reforms that could provide at least some short-term stability in Iraq and allow the United States to exit.

In the end, it also makes us wonder what Defense Secretary Robert Gates is supposed to be doing, if not coordinating the war. And it boggles the mind that, after four years of mismanaging this war, Bush has now decided that another layer of bureaucracy is needed to coordinate the effort. This is anything but the hallmark of a strong commander in chief.