An Accountability Moment

By Scott Horton

There are democratic societies that know how to deal with the bungling mismanagement of a military campaign in a sensible way. Israel is one of them. Following the proxy war in Lebanon of last summer, a special commission was appointed headed by a highly regarded retired judge, Eliyahu Winograd, to study the situation and issue a report. Its interim conclusions are scathing:

The decision to respond with an immediate, intensive military strike was not based on a detailed, comprehensive and authorized military plan, based on careful study of the complex characteristics of the Lebanon arena . . .

. . . in making the decision to go to war, the government did not consider the whole range of options . . .

Some of the declared goals of the war were not clear and could not be achieved, and in part were not achievable by the authorized modes of military action.

As Jon Stewart said in presenting his summary of the Winograd report, “Does this sound familiar to you?” It should. There is one major issue which the Winograd report was not authorized to examine, and that is the behind-the-scenes role played by the United States in the summer war. To be clear, the Lebanon was a double proxy war—Hezbollah served as a proxy for Syria and Israel served as a proxy for the United States. At this point, it’s clear that Olmert’s major failing was simple: he uncritically accepted the advice and analysis provided by the Americans. To put a face on that advice, informed sources in Israel tell me it was Elliott Abrams at the National Security Council who provided day-to-day management and oversight and who treated Prime Minister Olmert and his team with all the grace and dignity of a petulant teenager. Olmert implemented the plan that Abrams forged together with his Neocon buddies at the Department of Defense. Indeed, Douglas Feith’s last project—on which he was engaged up to the point of his departure from DOD—was advanced planning for the summer proxy war against Hezbollah.

In the Abrams masterplan, this war was to have put pressure on Syria and to have undermined Hezbollah as a political actor in Lebanon—bolstering the position of the advocates of the “Cedar Revolution.” In fact, of course, it was bungled from the start and had exactly the opposite of the anticipated effect. Sound familiar? As we mark year four of “Mission Accomplished,” it certainly does.

For the Bush Administration, there is an “accountability moment,” which occurs once every four years at the polls. The coming term is accountability free. However, Prime Minister Olmert presides over a country which, in this respect at least, states a far stronger claim to being a democracy. Calls and pressure for his resignation are mounting and an increasing number of analysts are saying he won’t weather the crisis. It’s enough to give Americans democracy-envy. And it should be enough to make Israeli governments in the future think twice before implementing war plans hatched by Neocon warlocks in Washington.