Adults To Take Charge in Iraq

**UPDATE BELOW**

Technorati Tags: Ryan Crocker, David Petraeus, Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. military, Pres. Bush, Iraq

"The reality-based community strikes back in Iraq," Juan Cole tells us:

The professionals take charge. Bush is bringing in Ryan Crocker, a distinguished career foreign service officer, as the new US ambassador to Iraq. And Gen. David Petraeus will replace Gen. Casey as top ground commander in Iraq. Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing ambassador to Iraq, will go as ambassador to the United Nations, replacing the lying blowhard John Bolton.

I'm stricken with a case of the "what ifs" and "if onlys"! What if Gates had been at the Pentagon in 2003 and Petraeus had been in charge of the US military in Iraq and Crocker had been there instead of Paul Bremer? These are competent professionals who know what they are doing. Gates is clear-sighted enough to tell Congress that the US is not winning in Iraq, unlike his smooth-talking, arrogant and flighty predecessor. Petraeus is among the real experts on counter-insurgency, and did a fine job of making friends and mending fences when he was in charge of Mosul. Crocker has been ambassador to Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon and Pakistan, and knows the region intimately (as does Khalilzad). Bremer had been ambassador to . . . Holland. Despite all the talk of the resurgence of the Neoconservatives with their "surge" (actually ramped up occupation) plan, this team is the farthest from Neoconservative desires that you could possibly get.

I wish these seasoned professionals well. They know what they are getting into, and it is an index of their courage and dedication that they are willing to risk their lives in an effort that the American public has largely written off as a costly failure. If the US in Iraq can possibly have a soft landing, these are the individuals who can pull it off. It is a big if.

For a graphic demonstration of the obstacles Crocker, Petraeus, et al., will have to overcome to make a true "fresh start" in Iraq, Prof. Cole points to a New York Times article, by Marc Santora and Johan Spanner reporting from Baghdad, about two successive bombings in the Mansour section.

UPDATE: DefenseTech has a roundup of media and blogger response to Bush's choice of Gen. David Petraeus as our "new man in Iraq."