Key senator backs creation of 'czar' for Iraq reconstruction

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., says he supports the idea of appointing a senior-level official in the Bush administration to manage operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that his committee might be able to play "a constructive role" in creating the new post.

"I like the idea," Lieberman told CongressDaily in an interview Thursday. "For all the people who have argued that the administration has been too focused on the military aspect of Iraq and Afghanistan, this is a way of saying, as I understand it, that ultimate victory is going to come not just because of military success but also . . . mostly because of political and economic success."

The Washington Post reported this week that aides to President Bush are evaluating a plan to create a so-called czar for Iraq and Afghanistan who would be empowered to cut through bureaucratic obstacles.

Lieberman, an independent who parts with Democrats on Iraq, said he envisions such a czar being primarily responsible for the non-military aspects of "post-conflict management," particularly in supporting provisional reconstruction teams. "This is a line that I think is unique and interesting to me and to our committee and so you can count on us to follow it," he said.

Lieberman's committee held a hearing last August to examine problems civilian agencies were having coordinating reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

The April 2 announcement that Meghan O'Sullivan is resigning as deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan opens the door to create the new post, Lieberman said. But the position would likely have to be outside the National Security Council structure to work, he added.

"I think to get somebody really top notch, you'd probably have to take the person out of the NSC and have the person reporting probably directly to the president," he said. "One might say the NSC should be doing it but they're not an administrative operation."

Lieberman acknowledged the czar would be responsible for coordinating some military aspects of reconstruction but indicated that would be primarily related to providing security for civilian agencies. He also said the choice would not become part of the military chain-of-command, emphasizing that Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, should continue to report to Adm. William Fallon, who heads the U.S. Central Command.

Provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq were first formed in 2005, Lieberman said, but could not get the necessary military protection from the Defense Department under the management of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"I think the folks at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld maybe, felt that if we put all of these soldiers to protect these civilians that are trying to rebuild the provinces we're going to have to take them away from other combat that they're involved in. We should have done both," Lieberman said.

Lieberman also said that a new czar would do essentially what L. Paul Bremer was supposed to do as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority until 2004. But Lieberman said the biggest difference now is that Iraq has its own government.