Perhaps that was about when you retired from the Navy? That was 1945. The current year is 2006. Believe it or not...times have changed. However, it still takes Presidential authority to employ nukes.
"Even LBJ knew about rules of engagement in Vietnam with his "they can't drop a bomb anywhere unless I tell them they can" pronouncement..."
Thank you for supporting my point. You want Bush to be another LBJ. Fortunately, Bush and the US Military does not share your opinion.
"But, now, with this many targets of opportunity walking free to terrorize the world and perhaps the blood relatives I have fighting in the GWOT..."
Stop right there. Why don't you tell the world exactly what that so called Predator picture has captured. Tell us exactly who those folks were and what they were doing. Give us the exact reason why the decision was made not to attack the group, and provide your source for that reason. THEN carry on with your rant about why people aren't conducting this war like you want them to. Since you obviously feel you have the big picture here, I want to know what your sources are regarding this incident. Or...are you relying on the MSM to help form your opinions. Your BS anti-Bush National Guard comments sure make it seem like you are better at spewing MSM trash than well supported arguments. Offer some indication you aren't just some sponge of MSM lies and deception.
Now, he'd be acceptable in most other times but he happens to be the president in, what is IMHO, the most critical challenges to our country in our history and he seems to be full of inconsistencies--i.e. his "worker program" for illegals, his failure to go to the mat for an increase in military equipment (more SDI space interceptors) and manpower (either pay more bonus for volunteer enlistment or institute a draft), not to mention his inconsistencies on core values--i.e. "because life begins at conception, stem cell research 'bad' BUT Plan B "good" (where the "H" is the philosophical difference?). His spending mirrors something I used to do in Olongapo Phillipine bars on "B Girls" after a 9 month "Yankee Station" deployment in the 60s, his No Child Left Behind is a travesty right out of Ted Kennedy's text book, his "compassionate conservatism" is more compassion than conservatism, and his leadership qualities are a joke. Succinctly, he is the embodiment of his "Read My Lips" old man and his worst-president-in-history great-grand-uncle Franklin Pierce! End of rant.