Irag, I'll Scratch Your Back...

Iraq

I'll Scratch Your Back...

This week, former secretary of State James Baker is scheduled to fly to Europe to beseech Russia, Germany and France to forgive Iraq's crushing $120 billion debt. His task is made all the more difficult by a statement, written by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, announcing that any country which failed to support the war on Iraq would not be allowed to bid on some $20 billion in contracts to rebuild the country. Before Baker even stepped on the plane, the countries cut off were angrily refusing to bail out Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush was reported to be miffed by the inopportune Pentagon pronouncement. A senior administration official blamed the foul-up on "munchkins," i.e., lower-level officials who had innocently blundered. But it was another in a series of miscommunications between the Defense Department and the White House.

The day after the Pentagon announced its punitive policy, a knowledgeable source told NEWSWEEK, top officials from State, Defense and other agencies agreed to not talk publicly about the policy in order to avoid further antagonizing erstwhile American allies. But the very next day Bush defiantly endorsed the ban. At a photo op after a cabinet meeting, a reporter asked Bush if such punitive steps squared with international law. "International law?" Bush answered, with an edge of sarcasm. "I better call my lawyer. He didn't bring that up to me."

The divisions over Iraq policy may run deeper. In Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, the American proconsul, has secretly lobbied for more troops, according to Sen. John McCain (an advocate for increasing troop levels). Not so, insists a top aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--who has consistently opposed sending more soldiers. At the White House, Robert Blackwill--a new senior national-security staffer brought in to shape political policy in Iraq--has been privately critical of Bremer's performance. According to diplomatic sources, White House officials were irked with Bremer for failing to line up the backing of leading Shiite clerics for the planned transfer of power to an Iraqi government.