[Peach]

I'm thinking this is NOT a good idea to have the president calling the shots. Why isn't the military deciding what is best?

[victoryatallcosts]

Because the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, not the other way around.

[Loyal Buckeye]

I read on another thread that the situation is a little different in Falujah than what we are lead to believe. I don't think GWB would go lightly if the situation warrants otherwise. Time will tell on this one.

[Pukin Dog]

Relax. Drudge is hyping it a little.

The Military did decide this. Bush blessed it. The military determined that they could not guarantee a 'clean' kill, and that civilians would likely die in the assault, providing a propaganda win for the insurgents if any of them were to survive. The Military is actually grateful for this decision, because they now get to just pick off the insurgents one by one, if any of them are dumb enough to pick up a weapon.

We are already getting propaganda from Al Jazerra trying to encourage an attack by suggesting that the insurgents have 'weakened'. Though that is true, they are not weak enough yet, as they would start shooting civilians themselves just to blame those deaths on America. Al Jazerra's cameras are ready and poised to capture those deaths, so we are not going to provide them. Instead, we will just keep shooting the insurgents through the head from sniper rifles, and let the insurgents starve.

[zarf]

Nonsense. Civilian leaders often make much better decisions than the "pros" in the military.

Often the pressures of politics relegates strategic military choices to the back of the deck.

The result often confirms the wisdom of that decision.....just ask Roosevelt or Lincoln...

[Rebelbase]

""Why isn't the military deciding what is best?""

Because its not running for re-election.

[DiscoStu1979]

Why isn't the military deciding what is best?

They generally do, but they have to follow the goal set by the President.

[altura]

He's called the commander-in-chief.

He listens to the military, but then the decision is his.

That's the way we want it... or at least I do.

[Iberian]

Shades of McNamara Peach. Shades of Viet Nam.We have soldiers going AWOL, this is getting messy. We are not there for social development we are there to kill the SOB's. (the bad ones).

I keep thinking back to Patton's line " The idea is to have the other son of a bitch die for his country".

The politics of this war is irritating the hell out of me.