Translated material
Bush castlings
Why is the US President shuffling his team?
Today at nine o'clock in the evening Washington time (in Moscow it will already be five o'clock on Thursday morning) US President George W. Bush will announce a change in policy in Iraq in a televised address to his compatriots. Most likely, he will promise to send another 20 thousand soldiers to the country in addition to the more than 140 thousand already there. The president will also explain the latest personnel changes that took place in the White House.Thus, George Bush plans to appoint a new commander of the American contingent in Iraq. Instead of General George Casey, he will most likely become Lieutenant General David Petraeus, who is in charge of training the Iraqi army and security forces. Casey will replace retiring General Peter Shoemaker as Army chief of staff.
It appears that General John Abizaid, who heads the US Central Command, whose area of responsibility includes Iraq and Afghanistan, will also lose his post. Admiral William Fallon, the current head of the Pacific Command, is being tipped to replace Abizaid.
The US Ambassador to Baghdad, an ethnic Tajik and native of Afghanistan, 55-year-old Zalmay Khalilzad, is being promoted. The post of US permanent representative to the UN awaits him - of course, if the appointment is approved by the Senate. Khalilzad could become the first Muslim in the US administration. He pushed aside another contender for the post of permanent representative to the UN - influential Republican Jim Leach, who worked in the UN mission under Permanent Representative Bush Sr.
Khalilzad's successor in Baghdad will be a veteran of American diplomacy, the current US Ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan Crocker. “New challenges on the ground call for changes in our strategy, and therefore new people will lead our military and diplomatic efforts,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explained the reshuffle.
The changes will also affect Ms. Rice's department. Her first deputy should be the son of the Greek magnate-ship owner, 67-year-old John Negroponte. He was the US Director of National Intelligence, coordinating the work of 16 intelligence agencies.
President Bush announced Negroponte's resignation on January 5, introducing the country's new chief intelligence officer. This is retired Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, 63. He has been in intelligence for more than 25 years, from 1992 to 1996 he headed the National Security Agency, engaged in global electronic intelligence and deciphering secret codes. Previously, he headed the intelligence division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army. As George W. Bush emphasized, "Mike has the experience, intelligence and character" to lead the nation's intelligence community. New appointments are subject to confirmation by the Democratic-majority Senate.
Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security, believes that the Bush team is “being rebuilt under the influence of public opinion, trends in the US elite due to failures in foreign policy and intelligence.” “The presidential team needs to demonstrate that it has a bench, there are people, there are ideas and there is still great potential,” the expert noted in an interview with Vremya Novostey.
The castlings are also connected with the 2008 election campaign. According to Mr. Zlobin, the president “needs to put key people in places where they can provide effective assistance during the campaign and at the same time remove them from where they are vulnerable to criticism”: “In America, it is extremely important that the outgoing president do his best in order to keep his party in power. After his November defeat in the congressional elections, Bush needs to rehabilitate the Republican Party in 2008, otherwise he will go down in history as a “loser,” a loser who weakened the position of his party. Republicans will make great efforts to try to regain control of at least one of the houses of Congress in November 2008.”
Thirdly, the leaving team always starts to lose people. “People understand that it’s time to leave, that in a year and a half they will still have to start collecting boxes, packing furniture and books. In Washington, the biggest business is moving things, especially since the election. The production of boxes, packaging - all this is paid at high government rates. Already now, people are rushing to take positions that will allow them to start a new life with perspective in January 2009,” noted Vremya Novostey’s interlocutor.