In this battle, his adversaries are just down the hall, the uniformed commanders of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.

He quickly took a more conciliatory approach that required tamping down some of his administration's hawks and many uniformed commanders.

The members are generally uniformed military commanders, except for the chairman and first vice-chairman, who have both been drawn from the Politburo in recent years.

"I called it a cesspool in my report," said Mr. Francis, who added that uniformed commanders had failed to provide proper oversight.

American military operations around the world are taking place as usual under uniformed regional commanders and the services chiefs, headed by General Powell here.

As part of the moves, some uniformed commanders will get new supervisory responsibilities.

Brown asserted that his job was to make sure that his uniformed commanders had the support they needed.

And uniformed commanders should be pushed for candid assessments about conditions on the ground and the realistic choices available to policy makers.

Now it is left to the uniformed military commanders to protect their troops.

"I don't understand," he began, but was interrupted by an elegantly uniformed commander.