This still makes no sense to me. Five years later and they decide they need a czar. This guy reports directly to the President. So what about Gates? Sounds like a fall guy to me.

After a frustrating search for a new “war czar” to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News has learned that President Bush has chosen the Pentagon’s director of operations, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, for the role.

In the newly created position of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation, Lute would have the power to direct the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies involved in the two conflicts.

Lute would report directly to the president and to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

Filling the position had become a priority for the White House, after a handful of retired generals told the White House they did not want the job. Among them, retired Marine Corps four’star Gen. Jack Sheehan, who proved an embarrassment to the White House after he wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post saying there were “huge shortcomings” in the White House view of the strategy in Iraq.

“What I found in discussions with current and former members of this administration,” wrote Sheehan, “is that there is no agreed upon strategic view of the Iraq problem or the region.”

More at ABC News