Call Him the "Government Czar"

Fred Kaplan on the search for a "war czar":

Actually, there's another official who, as Baker and Ricks describe the job, has the "authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department, and other agencies." He's called the president of the United States.

Uh-huh. I would just say that czar foolishness aside, the idea that the key to Iraq is shuffling the US-side personnel is pretty absurd. It's astonishing the number of side-issues the human mind can devise to distract attention from the fundamental dynamics in Iraq, but everything we do there eventually winds up crashing into stubborn reality. There simply isn't some rejiggering of the configuration of our policies that can make unattainable or nonsensical policy goals suddenly realististic.