To paraphrase from Alice, this administration just keeps getting “worser and worser.”

The Bush administration has finally found another bit of insulation from the failing overall foreign policy and the disastrous misadventure in Iraq.

Three-Star General, Douglas Lute has said that he would accept the position as White House Implementation Manager for the Wars and Iraq and Afghanistan. The Administration suddenly doesn’t want to call him this, but meet our new War Czar.

At least three other generals declined position most notably former top NATO commander retired Marine Gen. John J.  Sheehan.

In an interview last month with the Washington post Sheehan bluntly stated why any such offer would be a tough sell to most generals capable of holding such a position.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," Sheehan said.

 The administration is also said to have tapped retired Army Gen. Jack Keane and retired Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, for the post. Both said they weren’t interested.

In declining the position, some of the generals have given reasons such as the difficulty dealing with the various administration bureaucracies while at the same time waging active combat.

 But what really comes through between the lines of what they are saying, is this thing was the President’s idea so this thing is the President’s baby, and leading this nation in time of war is the President’s job.

 To complicate the administration’s sticky position on trying to find a manager for the war, is the fact that they have recently been going around charging Congress with trying to be a 535 member Commander in Chief squad, when in reality the President is the only Commander in Chief.

Yet, now it seems our one Commander in Chief wants to delegate further, the awesome responsibilities of performing the duties of the “commander” part in “Commander in Chief.

The most gigantically magnificent enterprise a country can do is to immerse itself into warfare.

Warfare is the one quick way to break men, systems of government and entire nations. One doesn’t enter into it without a full sense of what perils the monster may reap upon both aggressor and defender alike.

Those perils are not the “fog of war” type either. It is a given that once we commit ourselves to war there will be many things that don’t go  according to plan, of course there will be unforeseen problems and tragedies that arise during a war.

No, what we should exercise a healthy dose of reservation for is the very idea of war itself. It is the President who uncorks the bottle of combat and prepares the nation for the idea that we will resolve a given issue with a clash of arms.

The idea of war is the monster.  And it is the President who must bestraddle and come hell or high water ride the tiger until the end of the bloody thing. The monster, once borne, will consume, and show no favor.

A President must know, that power being the ultimate nutrient, is what the war machine craves most. The President must be up to the task of controlling the beast.

People, agencies, companies, armies, any part of the machinery which has direct arteries to the monster, will reach out to whatever power source they can and try and feed the monster. Inexorably the monster will turn and see if the President has the metal, to firmly maintain the reins.

Some have done it well, some, not so well.

While no war is good, some are necessary, in that they are the only reasonable action that can quickly resolve an issue and lead humanity to a better position than before the conflagration.

It is good that we have a system of government that does not allow for unilateral war making in any large-scale manner by the executive branch. It is just as good that in 1947 we decided to not have a Secretary of War any longer, and true to the American ideal created the Secretary of Defense. That one word makes a large difference.

But most importantly, when a sympathetic Congress gives the President an easy road to war, it is incumbent on him or her to self regulate. If the Command chooses the easy path, the spawned beast is theirs to ride.

This President or better yet, this administration was fully willing to ride the beast while the going was good. They even stayed the course when things abroad took a turn for the awful, but they yet had control of Congress.

But now, out there in the cold light of a failing foreign policy, with the people on the home-front firmly against him, and Congress against him and the rest of the world, at best in a state of angry ambivalence towards the United States, President Bush himself wants to shirk the responsibility up staying bestraddled to the war monster.

It is a certainty that war, like no other national engagement, ages a President. It is well that it should.

It should sap every bit of energy from the leader as a testament of the awesome responsibility of sending young men and women toward imminent carnage. 

The gaunt face and sagging eyes should act as testaments to the President’s commitment to warfare.

Recent history shows us that in our heretofore most unpopular war, the one in Southeast Asia, Lyndon Baines Johnson after dragging the country deeper into the quagmire, at least had the commitment to stay in the hot seat.

Even as everything was falling down around him, staff was leaving, the media turned sour, the country turned dovish and the battles abroad were, compounded by the battles for civil rights here at home, the President didn’t pawn off of his responsibility to yet another layer of bureaucracy.

The nation affords every President, a civilian Secretary and the pentagon full of military brass running around implementing his/her will. That should be enough bureaucracy to give him/her the advice and consent that they need yet keep them close enough to what is ultimately their responsibility.

President Johnson knew it was his war to win or lose, and he lost it. Nevertheless, at least he kept the burden of our tragedy upon his shoulders while he was in the White House.

There is not a case known of LBJ trying to insulate himself from the unpopular policies by adding another person to become the face of the Vietnam War.

This President however, with all of his braggadocio talk and cocky swagger, while conservatives ruled the country has tried to unsheathe the compassionate conservative almost as soon as the democrats took the reins of power.

Gone is the brash, arrogant talk by his Attorney General, who at times almost seemed disdainful that the country would challenge his right to administer as he saw fit, while he chipped away at civil liberties. The administration, with the changing of the guard, quickly began the givebacks, and the conciliatory tones.

And the defense minister who the President all but chanted, “hell no he won’t go,” when conservative congress got the boot, the Defense Secretary got the other one.

The “cowboy” Bush gave way to the meek mealy mouthed, “what’s your plan then,” unconfident “Wonder Pet.” A Presidential George Jetson, still crying “Jane, stop this crazy thing !!”

This is the true tragedy of the administration, not merely our folly in Iraq, but the fact that our President lacks the fortitude to remain Commander in Chief, when his chickens are coming home to roost and the world looks to see how our leadership acts when events get the better of the nation.

This adventure was not done for any American idealism, or any modicum of national security. This was a stab at a provocative movement in the Middle East, which the administration thought would have little or no consequences.

This little excursion may yet turn out to be the ultimate undoing of the Presidency and of America’s global leadership.

Moreover, the worst aspects probably haven’t even congealed themselves into an able malignant manifestation of anger against United States, yet.

But, don’t worry, the President is insulated, and it’s no longer his baby.