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:WellLute, first of allthey wrote, it suggests "followed the company line in a recent talk at the U.S. Embassy in London. 'We don't have hard intelligence or hard factual evidence that there's no immediate impacta clear link between the narcotics business and Afghanistan and extremists'," Lute said. That is However, Gertz and Scarborough wrote that this "conflicts with the elections themselves were not a silver bullet or a panacea that we were going to solve the insurgencyassessment of other officials, including Rep. The other thing it suggests to meMark Steven Kirk, PaulaIllinois Republican. Mr. Kirk, is just who has made fact-finding trips to the bravery region and the incredible willingness to step forward on the election day itself which we witnessed by talked with intelligence officials, has said al Qaeda is reaping millions of Iraqis moving to dollars from the polling placesdrug trade. And further moreThe money is funding Osama bin Laden's life on the run, the support by the brother Iraqishe said. "Robert Charles, until recently the security forcesState Department's top counternarcotics official, in securing over 5has a similar view,000 election places" they wrote. It suggests to me in sum that itCharles "says Afghanistan's still a dangerous placepoppy crop went from 152, but the Iraqis have demonstrated they are willing 000 acres in 2003 to step up515,000 acres in 2004, producing $7 billion in drug money ... They deserve our respect and our support for [with] a substantial amount of anecdotal evidence thatbad guys of every stripe are getting this money."
SW: fix
U.S. Army Lieutenant General '''Douglas E. Lute''' was confirmed June 28, 2007, by the [[U.S. Senate]] to serve as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan.<ref>[http://www.whitehouserawstory.govcom/news/releases/2007/05afp/20070515-10Senate_confirms_Bush_war_czar_06282007.html named"Senate confirms Bush war czar ,"] May 15Agence France Presse (''The Raw Story''), June 28, 2007, .</ref> Named for the position by President [[George W. Bush]] as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. In that positionon May 15, 2007, Lute is "charged with coordinating the efforts of the Executive Branch to support our commanders and senior diplomats on the ground in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]],." the <ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070515-10.html White House announcement statednews release], May 15, 2007.</ref>
Lute, who will act as Bush's "pointman", "ending a frustrated search for a 'war czar'," will serve under National Security Adviser [[Stephen J. Hadley]], "who said he wanted somebody who would focus full time on Iraq and Afghanistan, doing what he would do if he had the time to do it." [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21740520-1702,00.html]
Ed Henry, [http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/16/will-war-czar-lack-clout/ speaking] on CNN's ''Situation Room'', commented "It’s striking that the President did not publicly introduce Gen. Lute, choosing instead to announce the appointment via a [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070515-9.html written press release]. Normally for a high-profile appointment, the President would make a big splash, raising questions about just how much clout this appointee will have."
"As if it isn’t bad enough to start a job not knowing what your responsibilities will be, Lute gets to look forward to having his name discredited every time the president makes a mistake. I don’t think it’s a matter of if Lute will be fired before Bush’s term ends, I think it’s a matter of when," blogger Gary Graca [http://apps.michigandaily.com/blogs/thepodium/?p=283 commented] May 15, 2007, in the ''Michigan Daily''. "Poor guy. At least you can keep a little bit of dignity when you sell kitchen knives."
Lute's wife, [[Jane Holl Lute]], has served as Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the [[United Nations]] since August 1, 2003. [http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sga841.doc.htm]
----
==Question of effectiveness==
Lute, 54, currently serving as director of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], "was selected after several prominent retired generals turned down offers or overtures to become the White House's 'war czar'. ... [Lute] has been a three star general only since September [2006], but he has deep experience in the Middle East and was heavily involved in the planning for the current '[[McCain doctrine|surge]]' of US troops to Iraq." [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21740520-1702,00.html]
===Iraqis willing to "step up"===
In a February 9January 28, 2005, interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn, on the eve of the first Iraqi elections, Zahn asked: :ZAHN: "General, you now have the top American commander in the field, General Casey, saying he is not confident that Iraqi security forces can defeat the insurgents. What does that mean for U.S. troops?" :LUTE: "The elections are not going to be sort of the silver bullet that defuse the insurgency. It will persist thereafter. :"So, immediately, I don't think there's going to be any change in what we see in Iraq in terms of the role of the U.S. forces. But, increasingly, in 2005, I think we can all expect that we will find that our Iraqi security force partners will begin to step up to the point where they overtake us and assume the lead in the counterinsurgency." Lute repeated much the same thing after the elections in a February 9, 2005, interview with Zahn. Lute was [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/09/pzn.01.html asked] about the impact of the first Iraqi elections on the population, to which Lute answered: :"Well, first of all, it suggests that there's no immediate impact. That is that the elections themselves were not a silver bullet or a panacea that we were going to solve the insurgency. The other thing it suggests to me, Paula, is just the bravery and the incredible willingness to step forward on the election day itself which we witnessed by millions of Iraqis moving to the polling places. And further more, the support by the brother Iraqis, the security forces, in securing over 5,000 election places. It suggests to me in sum that it's still a dangerous place, but the Iraqis have demonstrated they are willing to step up. They deserve our respect and our support for that." ===No "hard factual evidence" of "clear link" between [[opium economy in Afghanistan|Afghanistan's drug profits]] and "extremists"=== Although the [[Pentagon]] "has never publicly asserted that drug profits from Afghanistan's bustling opium and heroin production find their way to al Qaeda," Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough [http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/ring090905.html wrote] September 9, 2005, "[o]fficials with a different opinion say that if the [[Defense Department]] made that link, it would get unwanted pressure to play a direct role in counternarcotics missions, such as raiding labs."
==Right in 2005==
===Success to come from a "political outcome"===
Lute [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/24/africa/web.0824iraqA.php told] reporters during a visit to London in August 2005 that "Everything in a counterinsurgency has to do with the political outcome, not the military outcome."
==The "enemy" is "Islamic extremism"=="At the core of Washington's new geostrategy is the explicit acknowledgment that its enemy is not 'terrorism' in general, but '[[Islamofascism|Islamic extremism]]'," Michael A. Weinstein [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GK11Aa01.html wrote] November 11, 2005, in ''Asia Times''. Lute, then CENTCOM director of operations, which then had military responsibility for the entire [[arc of instability]], [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GK11Aa01.html said] in August 2005, in "order to fight that enemy with any effectiveness", the "US had embarked on a 'long war' that - all else being equal - would become the dominant US military engagement once - as Washington hopes - Afghanistan and Iraq were stabilized." ==Using [[information warfare]] to fight "Bin bin Ladenism" and AQAM==
In a February 14, 2006, [http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007962 interview] with the ''Wall Street Journal'', Lute cited the [[Quadrennial Defense Review]], "which reveals long-term military planning, which shows a top brass [Lute] worried about the ideology of hate preached by imams across the Islamic world. This ideology, though twisted, is somewhat coherent and calls for using [[terrorism]] to create a 'caliphate,' a unified Islamic state, stretching from Afghanistan and [[Iran]] all the way to Spain and including most of North Africa. For a lack of a better term, some American military planners call this ideology 'bin Ladenism'," Lute said.
Lute "noted that bin Ladenism has deep roots in many Islamic countries and that bin Laden isn't the only [[terrorist]] leader trying to appeal to populations oppressed by dictators. There are some 18 terrorist organizations that are part of what the military calls al Qaeda and Affiliated Movement. The military, he said, even has an acronym for it: AQAM. :Note: The [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22al+Qaeda+and+Affiliated+Movement%22&btnG=Search&hl=en only online reference to "al Qaeda and Affiliated Movement" (AQAM)] comes from this reference by Lute.
"To counter bin Ladenism, the military is planning a two-stage war. The first is being fought in open battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere and looks a lot like the kind of war most Americans assumed we'd wage on al Qaeda and terror-sponsoring states after the [[September 11, 2001|Sept. 11 attacks]]. The second stage is what senior military planners--including [Secretary of Defense] Rumsfeld--call 'the Long War.' It involves countering one set of ideas with another," Lute said. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007962]
==Strategy for fighting the enemy (November 2006)==
On November 15, 2006, Lute spoke at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the United States Army 's Institute of Land Warfare in Arlington, Virginia. [http://defense.iwpnewsstand.com/insider.asp?issue=11212006][http://www.govexec.com/features/0107-01/0107-01s1.htm]
===Military "one fight deep"===
:"More specifically, he said, the military obtains from suspects only what they know and when they learned it. 'Every day he's detained it becomes less and less valuable, and that's not adequate HUMINT for [[The Long War|the long war]]'."
Lute [http://www.govexec.com/features/0107-01/0107-01s1.htm said] "'It's a clumsy way to do [human intelligence], and it is not very effective.' He said the military is hindered by a lack of language and cultural expertise."
===No "outright military victory"===
Lute stated that "al-Qaida is a networked organization but that 'our organization is still the same as before the war and it is insufficient to defeat the enemy.'
"The terror network, Lute said, consists of tangible assets, such as training camps, weapons and personnel, as well as intangible aspects"—"primarily of its use of the Internet as a tool to conduct communications, training, and command and control"—which "'defy a conventional approach'."
"They have a safe haven on the Internet," Lute said. "No one in the U.S. military has been tasked with the mission of attacking these intangibles. Until we do they will operate with impunity" and, "[as] long as that situation prevails, ... the United States and its coalition allies will not be able to vanquish the terrorist enemy."
"In June 2004, he began more than two years as Director of Operations (J-3) at US Central Command during which he oversaw combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the [[Horn of Africa]]. He assumed duties as Director of Operations, the Joint Staff, in September 2006." [http://www.jcs.mil/bios/bio_lute.html]
==Resources and articles=====[[Operation Iraqi Freedom/Related SourceWatch Resources|Related SourceWatch Resourcesarticles]]== ==External Links=====Profiles===*[http://www.jcs.mil/bios/bio_lute.html Biography: Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute, Director for Operations, J-3], Joint Staff General/Flag Officers, Joint Chiefs of Staff. ===Articles & Commentary=======2002====*[http://www.nato.int/kfor/docu/inside/2002/ik_020523b.htm "Transfer of authority MNB East,"] [[NATO]], May 21, 2002.*[http://www.unmikonline.org/press/2002/mon/july/lmm040702.htm#2 "Gen. Lute: Troop reductions are a sign of progress in Kosovo,"] UNMIK Online, July 4, 2002.
====2005=References===*[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/09/pzn.01.html Transcript: ''PAULA ZAHN NOW''], CNN: "Iraq Exit Strategy?", February 9, 2005.*Peter Spiegel and Demetri Sevastopulo, [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9f81fef2-14de-11da-9df1-00000e2511c8.html "US general sees significant withdrawal in Iraq,"] ''Financial Times'', August 24, 2005.*[http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/24/africa/web.0824iraqA.php "Bold guerrilla attacks raise doubts over Iraqi forces,"] Reuters (''International Herald Tribune''), August 24, 2005.*Richard Norton-Taylor, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1555838,00.html?gusrc=rss "Al-Qaida will retreat to Africa, says general,"] ''The Guardian'' (UK), August 25, 2005.*Peter Spiegel, [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e4df353a-1503-11da-9df1-00000e2511c8.html "Pentagon plans for 'long war' on terror,"] ''Financial Times'', August 25, 2005.*Michael Evans, [http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1011 "Internet websites used to plan terror attacks. Al-Qaeda leader may flee to Africa,"] ''IsraelNationalNews.com'' (MilitantIslamMonitor.org), August 25, 2005.*Steve Soto, [http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/005271.php "Bush And CENTCOM Continue To Send Mixed Messages,"] ''The Left Coaster'', August 25, 2005.*Lance Knobel, [http://www.davosnewbies.com/2005/08/25/ft-off-the-rails/ "FT Off the Rails,"] ''Davos Newbies'' Blog, August 25, 2005.*James Livingston, [http://politicsandletters.com/wp2/?p=36 "Exit Strategies,"] ''Politics and Letters'' Blog, August 25, 2005.*Gordon Corera, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4186766.stm "Iraqi charter and the insurgency,"] BBC News, August 26, 2005.*Rowan Scarborough, [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050901-114113-4079r.htm "U.S. teams stay embedded in Iraqi combat units,"] ''Washington Times'', September 2, 2005.*[[William Kristol]], [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0RMQ/is_47_10<references/ai_n15397364 "The war presidency,"] ''The Weekly Standard'' (FindArticles.com), September 5, 2005.>
====2006=Published Works===*[http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:dBvThDb92yUJ:wwwwwics.sais-jhusi.edu/insider/pdfsubsites/2006_articlesccpdc/mclaughlin_crs_012006.pdf+%22Douglas+Lute%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us "Discussion About the War on Terrorism,"] Guests: [[Brian Ross]], Douglas Lute, [[John McLaughlin]], ''The Charlie Rose Show'', January 20, 2006.*Brendan Miniter, [http:pubs/compl/www2.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007962 htm "'Bin Ladenism'Improving National Capacity to Respond to Complex Emergencies. The Pentagon's vision for the 'Long War',"] ''WSJ OpinionJournal'', February 14, 2006U.*Mike, [http://www.topdog08.com/2006/02/breeding_bin_laS.html "Breeding Bin Ladenism, Losing the Long WarExperience,"] ''TOPDOG08'' Blog, February 20, 2006.*A Report to the [[J. Peter PhamCarnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict]], [http://worlddefensereview.com/pham042006.shtml "Strategic Interests,"[Carnegie Corporation of New York] ''World Defense Review'', April 20, 2006.*William M. Arkin, [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/04/pirates_just_what_pakistan_nee.html "Pirates! Just what Pakistan Needs,"] ''Early Warning'' / ''Washington Post'', April 26, 2006.*[http://www.ausa.org/webpub/DeptGovAffairs.nsf/byid/JRAY-6VMMUD "Legislative News,"] AUSA, November 17, 2006. Scroll down to "AUSA Hosts Several key Committee Staffers".*Peter Buxbaum, [http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/29734-1.html "To win against terrorism, DOD networks must be innovative,"] ''Washington Technology'', November 17, 2006.*[http://defense.iwpnewsstand.com/insider.asp?issue=11212006 "Straight Talk,"] ''The Inside Defense'' Newstand, November 21, 20061988.
====2007====*[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2007/02/mil-070209-dod01.htm Transcript: "DoD News Briefing with Lt. Gen. Lute and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Kimmitt from the Pentagon,"] U.S. Department of Defense (GlobalSecurity.org), February 9, 2007.*[http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=February&x=20070209164253sjhtrop0.8450891 "Baghdad Security Unfolds with a Unified Iraqi Command Structure. U.S. officials say violence must be quelled to provide political momentum,"] U.S. Department of State, February 9, 2007.*Dean Yates, [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=223622007 "Iraq must be stabilised or face full civil war, warns new US military chief,"] ''Scotland on Sunday'', February 11, 2007.*[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/02/25/crimson_and_camouflage/ Editorial: "Crimson and camouflage,"] ''Boston Globe'', February 25, 2007.*Lolita C. Baldor, [http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=5294 "US Forces Routinely Pursue Taliban into Pakistan,"] Associated Press {EnvironmentalistsAgainstWar), March 1, 2007. *Chidanand Rajghatta, [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1712591.cms "US goes public with hot pursuit in Pak,"] ''Times of India'', March 2, 2007.*[http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/03/04/2003350917 "NATO 1,000 troops short in Afghanistan. HELP WANTED: US General John Craddock said in addition to increasing its forces, NATO could not succeed without cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan,"] Associated Press (''Taipei Times''), March 4, 2007.*[http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-02-afghan-troops_x.htm "Combat, reconstruction troops still lacking for Afghanistan as new offensive looms,"] ''USA TODAY'', March 4, 2007.*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070515-10.html Fact Sheet: Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute: Experience and Authority], Office of the White House Press Secretary, May 15, 2007.*Steve Holland, [http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00750220070515 "Bush picks Gen. Lute as 'war czar' for Iraq,"external links|External articles] Reuters, May 15, 2007.*Jim Mannion, [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21740520-1702,00.html "Bush picks general as 'war czar',"] ''news.com.au'', May 15, 2007.*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6660073.stm "US names general to be 'war tsar',"] BBC News, May 15, 2007.*Gary Graca, [http://apps.michigandaily.com/blogs/thepodium/?p=283 "The worst job in America,"] ''The Podium'' Blog/''Michigan Daily'', May 15, 2007.*Peter Baker and Robin Wright, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501612_pf.html "Bush Taps Skeptic of Buildup as 'War Czar'. Lt. Gen. Lute Accepts Position Others Spurned,"] ''Washington Post'', May 16, 2007.*Barney Porter, [http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1924679.htm "White House creates new job to improve conflict co-ordination,"] ''The World Today''/ABC News (Australia), May 16, 2007.==
[[category:war/peace]][[category:war in Iraq]]
