Morning brief, Wednesday April 19

Won’t it be a little awkward when U.S. diplomats mediate the oil revenue dispute between Paul Wolfowitz and Idriss Deby.   

Bush administration

Max Boot argues: “In our system, defense secretaries are supposed to fire generals, not vice versa.”

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan made things interesting. As he departs, let’s just leave it at that.

The LA Times believes that Bush is basically giving up on the Doha round of trade talks by yanking Rob Portman from his job as U.S. trade rep and making him budget director.

Hu Jintao Visit

The WSJ urges Bush not to forget to bring up the plight of North Korean refugess with China: “While North Korea bears ultimate responsibility for these abuses, Beijing is a willing facilitator.” 

China’s oil demand will be a big part of the agenda for Hu’s visit… Hu needs a successful summit more than Bush does, argues Simon Tisdall of the Guardian:

China’s medium-term challenge to US dominance can be exaggerated; and the pragmatic Mr Hu, walking on eggshells and seeking a boost before the 2007 party congress, needs a successful summit more than Mr Bush. 

David Ignatius is on fire. His column today on China is must-read:

China’s overwhelming demand for commodities will break the current models for economic growth. Prices for commodities will rise so sharply that the world will be driven onto a different growth path, where it takes a smaller input of energy to produce a given increase in output. New technologies and food sources will alter the supply-demand picture. Either that or the world will face an era of wars over resources.

Iraq

 More deadly violence in a Sunni part of Baghdad. The WaPo reports that residents could only guess who was fighting whom, because “U.S. and Iraqi soldiers thought they were shooting at insurgents who were trying to ambush them. Local men on neighborhood watch in the predominantly Sunni Arab area thought they were shooting at Shiites who were coming to kidnap and kill them.” 

What is the key short coming of the U.S. occupation? Healthcare. The policy analysts at RAND shed new light on what went wrong in the aftermath of April 10, 2003: 

”Counterinsurgency experts have long argued that winning hearts and minds is a key — if not the key — component in establishing peace,” the report said. ”Health can play an important role in the effort by, for example, offering tangible health programs to the local population and meeting basic health needs.”

The Kurds want their own oil ministry.  

Elsewhere

The nuclear option for eliminating nuclear facilities doesn’t make sense, Michael Levi argues in the NYT. Bush won’t rule it out.

Israel opts for military restraint in wake of a bombing it views as Hamas-backed. But it will ratchet up the political pressure. The NYT calls Hamas’s applauding of the suicide attack “monumentally cynical and dimwitted.”

Nepalese democracy protestors killed. Mbeki may visit Ramallah and hurt ties with Israel. The debate over a third term for Obasanjo grips Nigeria. Liberia issues a report on the government’s first 150 days.