Council on Foreign Relations' Les Gelb on How America Muddles Its Power

You and then-Sen. Joe Biden were vocal advocates of partitioning Iraq.

We were for the decentralization of power. Americans ought to understand the difference between federalism and partition.

Has that plan died?

No. We were saying that the Iraqis better work out a political settlement; otherwise, they're going to have a civil war when we leave. The way to do that is to decentralize power to the three main groups because they don't trust each other.

Could that plan be applied to Afghanistan?

It's difficult because the power is even more dispersed. In Iraq, they're held together by common oil interests. If there was a civil war, they'd all get nothing. It's hard to know what holds the Afghans together other than the poppy seed.

Has the global recession affected your thoughts on American power?

The state of our economy underpins our international power. No strong economy, no international power. And it's absolutely critical that that be fixed first and foremost. We're into this mode that we can do everything—we're like the supermom of the world—but you can't.

So the recession has weakened U.S. standing?

We still are—and every other nation knows this—the leading power of the world. There are no major international problems that can be solved without American leadership.

You've criticized the media for their coverage of the Iraq war. What's the media doing wrong now?

There's no more important institution than the press because in the end it's the only really independent one. And it's the one on which we all depend to tell us what's going on with those who have power. What does the media have to do now? Ask the tough questions that these people don't want to answer.

What isn't anyone asking Obama?

I'd be asking in Afghanistan, whose war really is this? Is it the Afghans' war? Or is it our war? And if it's the Afghans' war, what are you doing exactly to turn over that burden to them? And when?

If you were Obama, what would keep you up at night worrying?

That I've got too many problems. That I've got to figure out which one or two to focus the power of the presidency on. And, boy, I hope I'm going to be right.