The Pentagon and the State Department are into some pretty serious bickering over what the U.S.-controlled postwar Iraqi government should look like.
State proposed that the team include eight present and former State Department officials, including some ambassadors to Arab countries. They were initially cleared, then were told they weren't going.
Instead, the Washington Post reports, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is trying to "ensure the Pentagon controls every aspect of reconstructing the country and forming a new government." One of his choices is former CIA director R. James Woolsey.
Josh Marshall, who consistently has informed comment on his blog site, Talking Points Memo, also takes on the postwar government question.
Where's Geraldo update
Coming home soon. He agreed to leave voluntarily, rather than be expelled, after military officials said he had "compromised operational security" at the unit he was covering.
And where's Peter Arnett?
The Daily Mirror in London has hired him. The paper opposes the war in Iraq.
"I report the truth of what is happening in Baghdad and will not apologize for it," the tabloid quoted Arnett as saying.
But he did apologize for saying on Iraqi TV that the U.S. war plan had failed after NBC, MSNBC and National Geographic Explorer all fired him.
But that was yesterday. Oh, well.
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