Lute to Referee Between State, Pentagon

In this photo released by the Department of Defense, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, director for operations, the Joint Staff, conducts a Pentagon operational update briefing Feb. 9, 2007, in Washington. According to an administration official President Bush on May 15, 2007, chose Lute to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as "war czar."(AP Photo/Department of Defense, Helene C. Stikkel) (Helene C. Stikkel - AP)

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday there "sometimes are turf wars and jealousies and that sort of thing anyplace in government." Lute, he said, would be "there to assist" officials in meeting their common goals.

"This has always been a team effort," said David Satterfield, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top adviser for Iraq. "That will certainly continue. Doug Lute is very well known to all of us."

Asked whether he feels Lute's post is needed, Satterfield said Bush wanted the position created, "and so it has been."

There was considerable discussion of Lute during the morning senior staff meeting Wednesday at the State Department, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

One view was that Lute understands the realities in Iraq and might be able to convey the difficulties of the issues to Pentagon officials who, diplomats say, do not always get it.

Lute's appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

Lute has a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Military Academy and master's in public administration from Harvard University. His other jobs have included director of operations for U.S. Central Command and deputy director of operations at U.S. European Command.

"He will do a lot," predicted Lutfi Haziri, Kosovo's current deputy prime minister and mayor of Gnjilane while the town was in the U.S.-controlled sector under Lute's command.

Lute and Haziri shared meals and patrolled the town together several times over the six months in 2002 when Lute served in Kosovo.

"He supported strongly the politics of ethnic integration and decreased to zero ethnic incidents," Haziri said Wednesday in Kosovo. He said Lute had a "commitment to enforce peace which distinguished him from the others."

Lute is also known as a straight-talker, which helped when he handled daily briefings in Iraq and Afghanistan for former Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid.

Like Abizaid, Lute has said a large U.S. troop presence only fosters Iraqi dependency. Lute was a skeptic of sending more troops to Iraq as Bush decided to do early this year to try to control violence in Baghdad.