Upgrading the CFR

Needless to say, THE SCRAPBOOK was delighted to learn that Angelina Jolie will soon be joining the august ranks of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Our initial instinct, of course, was to snicker quietly to ourselves about the Council's new member: Lara Croft Tomb Raider, the changeable tattoos, the vial of (then-husband) Billy Bob Thornton's blood hanging around her neck, the tabloid drama of her (ongoing) love affair with Jennifer Aniston's (now-ex) husband Brad Pitt--and the recent birth of her daughter (Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt), fathered by the aforementioned Mr. Pitt, in Namibia.

But the better angels of our nature took hold, and we remembered that Miss Jolie is also a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and stole the show at the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, where she talked about her work with refugees in the war-torn precincts of Asia and Africa. Why, just last week she published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post entitled "Justice for Darfur." Come to think of it, Ambassador Jolie will be an adornment and a credit to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The truth is, her appointment tells us much more about the Council than it does about Ambassador Jolie. The Council on Foreign Relations, in its comfortable quarters on Manhattan's East 68th Street, is usually described as the citadel of American foreign policy, the book-lined clubhouse for those Wall Street lawyers, senior academics, and aging Yale men who guided the Republic into the American Century.

Well, that was true in, say, 1958. In recent years, however, the Council has served as the Carter--and later Clinton--administrations in exile. (It's now headed by Richard Haass and serves as the Powell State Department in exile.) Its recent presidents have included such eminences as Peter Tarnoff (Cyrus Vance's right-hand man) and Leslie H. Gelb, another veteran of the Jimmy Carter State Department and a onetime New York Times columnist. Gelb's last journalistic crusade was on behalf of Columbia professor Gary Sick's crackpot "October Surprise" theory that Ronald Reagan stole the 1980 election by secretly dispatching his running mate, George H.W. Bush, to Paris to persuade the Iranians to prolong the imprisonment of American hostages in Tehran.

Professor Sick, needless to say, is also a member of the Council. Ambassador Jolie may well raise the tone.

"To Soldier Again"

We missed this when he took command of the coalition in Iraq three weeks ago, but General David H. Petraeus's February 10 message to his troops is well worth a read:

"To the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Civilians of Multi-National Force-Iraq:

"We serve in Iraq at a critical time. The war here will soon enter its fifth year. A decisive moment approaches. Shoulder-to-shoulder with our Iraqi comrades, we will conduct a pivotal campaign to improve security for the Iraqi people. The stakes could not be higher.

"Our task is crucial. Security is essential for Iraq to build its future. Only with security can the Iraqi government come to grips with the tough issues it confronts and develop the capacity to serve its citizens. The hopes of the Iraqi people and the coalition countries are with us.

"The enemies of Iraq will shrink at no act, however barbaric. They will do all that they can to shake the confidence of the people and to convince the world that this effort is doomed. We must not underestimate them.

"Together with our Iraqi partners, we must defeat those who oppose the new Iraq. We cannot allow mass murderers to hold the initiative. We must strike them relentlessly. We and our Iraqi partners must set the terms of the struggle, not our enemies. And together we must prevail.

"The way ahead will not be easy. There will be difficult times in the months to come. But hard is not hopeless, and we must remain steadfast in our effort to help improve security for the Iraqi people. I am confident that each of you will fight with skill and courage, and that you will remain loyal to your comrades-in-arms and to the values our nations hold so dear.