A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

In a move guaranteed to prompt commentary and exceedingly close analysis of the who's-in-who's-out game that so many people find fascinating about Washington politics, President Bush essentially shoved the Pentagon aside in terms of leading the reconstruction of Iraq, and put the State Department in charge:

The presidential directive, issued this month but announced yesterday, will also reinforce the political power of the State Department’s office of reconstruction and stabilisation, with a mission to anticipate state failures, prevent conflict and lead the co-ordination of co-ordinate post-war efforts.

Carlos Pascual, the senior State Department official heading that office, said it was “important to get on paper” that the secretary of state would be in charge of future post-war reconstruction policies and planning.

The 2003 decision to hand control of the reconstruction to the Pentagon has been widely criticised and led to a degree of inter-agency friction. State Department experts who had planned for the post-war period were pushed aside by Pentagon officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, who strongly resisted the notion of nation-building.

A former senior official involved in what he called the “chaos” of post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq said yesterday’s announcement also affirmed the growing power and influence of Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state.

I am far less interested in this than I am in whether a good working relationship between the State Department and the Pentagon will eventuate. It will be key to the reconstruction effort, and if only for reasons of bureaucratic survival (remember that Donald Rumsfeld is a Jedi Master when it comes to interagency warfare), it will be in Condi Rice's interests to foster such a relationship.

Developing in a most fascinating manner . . .