The Washington Post reports today on the hiring of Eliot A. Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to fill the position left vacant by Philip D. Zelikow’s departure from the State Department earlier this year. Cohen has been a harsh critic of the administration’s handling of post-war Iraq, but his hiring is likely to cause little joy among those advocating a diplomatic solution to the war in Iraq. In December, Cohen authored a scathing piece on the Iraq Study Group for The Wall Street Journal. Said Cohen,
What we need in Iraq is not a New Diplomatic Offensive (capitals in the original) so much as energy and competence in fighting the fight. From the outset of the Iraq war much of our difficulty has stemmed not so much from failures to find the right strategy, as from an astounding and depressing inability to implement the strategic and operational choices we have nominally made.
Commentary, to which Cohen has been a frequent contributor, has reposted a number of Cohen’s articles on their website.
