The Pentagon put on a press conference yesterday for Walt Slocombe, the Coalition Provincial Authority's defense minister ... excuse me, defense advisor in Baghdad. Walt is one of the guys who's been given the job of building the New Model Army for the New Iraq®.
This is a terribly important job, since at this point it looks like the only hope for getting the 3rd Infantry Division home before its soldiers are ready to check into a nursing home is the Pentagon's planned "Iraqization" of the war. And if "Iraqization" is going to work, folks like Walt are the ones who are going to have to make it work.
Which is why I am reprinting a post I put up over at Daily Kos back in April, when I first heard Walt had been selected for the Iraqi defense job. Considering what's happening in Iraq right now:
U.S. Troops Ambushed in Central Iraq Town
I think it's important for people to know a little something about Field Marshall von Rumsfeld's man on the spot:
As it turns out, I know Walt Slocombe -- in the sense that I've actually sat down a few times and talked with him face to face. I even bought him lunch once, many years ago.So why am I dropping his name here? Not to overinflate my own importance, believe me. I knew Walt back when he was a lawyer, representing foundations and other nonprofit organizations that had tax problems with the IRS. It was during one of the many low points in my journalistic career, and I was just an insignificant little reporter covering the IRS for a small, special-interest newspaper -- what they call a "trade" in the trade. And Walt was a source, of sorts.
At the time, Slocombe was in GOP-enforced exile from his real profession: national security bureaucrat. He was a mid-level official in the Carter Administration (Defense or State, I can't remember which) who returned to government under Clinton and rose to become Undersecretary of Defense. I lost track of him after that.
I have no idea why the neoconmen picked Slocombe, a Democrat and a Clinton appointee, to run the Ministry of Defense in our new Protectorate of Iraq. Some byzantine convolution of Beltway politics, I suppose. But just the thought of Walt as the de facto defense czar of the new! and improved! Iraq made me laugh out loud.
Don't get me wrong: I don't have anything against Walt. He's a very nice, very polite gentleman who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Buster Keaton, the silent movie star. As I recall, he liked to spend part of the summer with his family in the north of Italy, where he has (or had) a small villa. Walt's very knowledgeable about the law and history and Italian cuisine, and he wears (or wore) nicely tailored, conservative gray suits. Ivy League all the way.
If I were a nonprofit hospital, and I wanted to convince the IRS that leasing space to a group of doctors for their for-profit oncology clinic was NOT subject to the unrelated business income tax, I'd pick Walt.
If I were the Secretary of Defense, and I wanted to reorganize the Office of Defense Procurement to streamline the process for ordering office supplies for the Pentagon's satellite facilities, I'd pick Walt.
But if I wanted someone to be an America's de facto defense minister in a fractured Middle Eastern country teeming with political factions, religious sects and ethnic groups who all hate each other, devastated by years of war and economic sanctions, and brutally repressed by decades of totalitarian dictatorship . . . well, let's just say Walt wouldn't be on my short list.
Which means what?
That the neoconmen were absolutely clueless about what they were getting into? Possibly.
That the gang plans to keep a particularly tight grip on the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, and needs to have a pliable front man (preferably a Democrat) on the ground to take the flack? Perhaps.
That Walt Slocombe needs to run, not walk, to the nearest telephone and tell the Pentagon he's withdrawing his name from consideration? Definitely.
Because it's a long way from Iraq to the north of Italy, and it's hard to get good prosciuto in Baghdad. And the drycleaning? Well, don't even ask.
(Shrugs) I still think he should have taken my advice.
jp: "That Walt Slocombe needs to run, not walk, to the nearest telephone and tell the Pentagon he's withdrawing his name from consideration? Definitely."
What is a nice guy like Walt doing in a place like that [Iraq]? I don't think he should run to the nearest phone. . . but sprint!
Billmon your articles are apt and to the point but does Bush the Minor and all his vicious Republican thugs have to keep providing you such an abundance of material? My head spins, like a neocon top trying to filter the truth. Where will all this crap end?
I'm sure the Iraq Defense Ministry's paper clip procurement system will be flawless.
One thing I'll say about Walt is that he struck me as a complete straight arrow -- not a wiff of corruption. So it will be interesting to see how he deals with the, um, creative commercial values of both the Iraqis and the Halliburtons of the world.
There is some connection between the Ivy League and US Foreign Policy post WWII. I keep thinking it has something to do with Anglophilia providing a conduit for suggestions from the British on how to continue their role...
But anyway, Ivy League loyalty is a big factor int he CIA and I'm sure elsewhere. You forgot to mention where Walt went to college... Princeton or Yale?
My sympathies to Walt's widow-to-be.
Unless Walt goes native a la Lawrence of Arabia.
Even then...
(smacks forehead)
Walt's a bit of a windbag, isn't he? Every verb has a qualifier. Nailing him down is like nailing Jello to a tree.
It sounds like we blew up a helluva lot of their equipment. If there's not enough trucks and such from a 500,000-man army to service 27 battalions of light infantry, we must have been doing a lot of target practice.
I feel sorry for the soldiers in this army we're building. With the way things are going with the enterprise as a whole (e. g., dig up Tuesday's WSJ and read column one, page one), they're going to end up nailed to things as collaborators after we leave.
Q: I understand the number of detainees being held inside Iraq are going up. And I'm wondering -- I think the last figure I saw was 10,000, up from about 3,000 in July. And I'm wondering, is that -- from your perspective, is that a hindrance in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people?
Slocombe: I don't know, I don't do detainees.
He's been listening to Rumsfeld, alright. DiRita, in his spiel in response to that question, proves we are definitely running a faith-based occupation.
Well, I am unsure of what to think.
The Iraqies deserve anything better than the beforehand harassment and enslavement blunder of the Neocons.
I think it's worth making the point that much of the work in getting ready for the new Iraqi army and its support is being done by Iraqi contractors. The construction work was done by Iraqi construction companies. The uniforms were made by Iraqi uniform companies. And we've tried to use Iraqi resources wherever we can.
This is the first time I read that someone tries to solve Iraqi problems with reason instead of fascist agenda.
Coincidentally, this starts in the one area where the Neo Con Artists are flat pressed to the wall into bankruptsy.
They won't get the international troops to relieve the US boots on the ground before the cardhouse collapses.
This is late in the game, and Iraqi troops are the only viable option left ( not the first choice ) to relieve the attrition strain on the US Army corps.
The new Iraqi army might still prove unwilling, though, to do the dirty work for the Occupiers, just as many American trained Police has proven to be unwilling to do that work. [and, consequently keep getting massacred by our fine, young killing machines®]
For the sake of the Iraqi people, I wish Walt good luck in rebuilding Iraqi supply solutions, and remain sceptical of everything else.
Police has proven to be unwilling to do that work. [and, consequently keep getting massacred by our (troops)...]
I can't really following your reasoning here. Could you explain ?
We keep hearing that Iraqi policemen are not happy with their situation and risk getting killed by guerillas and gangsters. There also have been cases where they have been killed by Americans.
But I don't see the cause-and-effect chain you seem to postulate, namely, that policemen get killed by Americans because they don't want to do their job. Certainly the group recently killed in a car chase were trying to do their job.
Greetings
Karl Heinz
Hamburg, Germany
Greetings, Karl Heinz.
They were trying to do their own job, policing that is, and not the dirty work for the Americans to catch insurgents.
Surviving Iraqi policeman in Falluja, in the aftermath of the massacre of 9 of their collegues, stated, that the Americans wanted them to hunt "Bathist Remnants" in the area, which they refused. Their reason for refusing this 'dirty work for the Americans' were twopronged: Police in the area made bad experiences going on excursions with US troops, finding themself put into the frontlines by the GI's, without Kevlar vests or proper weapons ( Almost like human bait ),
and being threatened with assasination at home for being collaborators.
They just wanted to do Policework in their hometown, and protect the citizens of Falluja.
Some soldiers on the ground, like their fathers in Viet Nam, find it hard to distinguish between good and bad "Sandniggers", "Towelheads" or "Ragheads". "Let god sort'em out!"
Consequently, when not shooting back even once, they were murdered, or at best killed in utter diregard of human live. I don't have all the links anymore, but read the great
Robert Fisk
I like Walt Slocombe and have known him personally, over 4 years. He has been a mentor and a friend, someone I think of often and with respect. He has intelligence and the wit most do not understand or not able to comprehend. He lacks the artificial polish of some political images, but excels beyond their scope and breath to understand and grasp underlying problems.
I would rest easier if a hundred Walt Slocombe’s were in Iraq to help put together the broken country. May god guide his hand steady and bring him home safe to his family.
What was your advice ?