Several Kurdish sources suggest that Iraq President Jalal Talabani is not well enough to return to Iraq. There are now rumors of a Sulaymani meeting regarding PUK succession involving Talabani’s wife, Hero Khan, Barham Salih, Kosrat Rasul, Noshirwan Mustafa, and Molla Bakhtiar. Such rumors may or may not be correct, sparked by the uncertainty caused by Talabani’s increasing frequent visits to the Mayo Clinic, his age, and his general poor physical condition.

Regardless, the episode highlights an additional weakness of Bush administration strategy. Too often in state building, the Bush administration has emphasized the individual politician over the system it wishes to create. It talks about the importance of Talabani, an able if not consistent politician, and not the presidency; the importance of Maliki, but not the system that he represents or, for that matter, Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

The danger of putting all eggs in one basket and promoting the individual above the concept of good governance is multi-fold. First, each is just a bullet (or, in Talabani’s case, a tumor) away from death with no clear scenario of what comes next. It is yet one more example of Washington’s tendancy to promote short -term stability at the expense of long-term security. Second, individuals shrouded by U.S. protection, regardless of their actions, often abuse their power. Saddam was once embraced by Washington elites as the great hope. Talabani’s legacy has, in part, become corruption and attacks on the press. Karzai’s has become his protection of his brother, widely reputed to be Afghanistan’s largest drug lord. Few development deals bypass Maliki. Third, Washington’s embrace of leadership sometimes seems random. Few Americans let alone Iraqis remember much about Ibrahim Jaafari, despite the praise heaped upon him. Fourth, failure to prioritize the system over the individual retards the growth of a responsible core of new leaders. Unfortunately, this may be the legacy which Bush leaves to his successor with regard to Iraq and Afghanistan.