McCain: Forget Democracy, Do What The Military Says

by: Chris Bowers

Sun Jul 20, 2008 at 22:35


Elected presidents of the United States and Iraq should just do what the leaders of the American military say they should do. At least, that is what McCain thinks, according to their statement that was released in response to Al-Malaki:

"Barack Obama has said repeatedly that, if elected President, he would summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff and give them a new mission: get all U.S. forces out of Iraq within 16 months, regardless of the conditions on the ground. Today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, the nation's highest ranking officer, made clear that he believes such an approach could be 'very dangerous.' Admiral Mullen further added that his view is shared by U.S. commanders in Iraq, who are 'adamant about continuing progress, about making decisions based on what's actually happening in the battle space.'

Neither the head of state of Iraq nor the head of state of the United States should tell the American military what to do in Iraq. Also, the people of American and the people of Iraq also should not have a say. At least the McCain campaign is clear on what they think should determine U.S. policy in Iraq: military dictatorship.

It took the McCain campaign roughly 36 hours to come up with any response to Al-Malaki. In the end, they seem to have decided to play the military dictatorship card. Almost as much as I have ever wanted anything in this campaign, I would love it if the Obama campaign would responds with a statement making it clear that the civilian, democratically elected governments of both countries determine military policy, not military commanders. The conservative demand that we should all just do whatever the military says has gone unchecked long enough.  
Chris Bowers :: McCain: Forget Democracy, Do What The Military Says

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McCain: Forget Democracy, Do What The Military Says | 7 comments
Iraq/Al-Maliki (4.00 / 1)
Thanks for the heavy posting on this. It's going to be all-hands on deck to get the media to really cover this story. There's been some trickling of coverage coming out, but nothing that matches the significance of Al-Maliki's statement.

Considering how much time the media spent analyzing the word 'refine' from Obama, you'd think they'd be all over a succinct definitive endorsement of Obama's policy by Iraq's prime minister. But, given that this is the same credulous press corp that helped the Bush Administration sell the war in the first place, I guess I'm not surprised that the response has been muted.

The Times has come out with a new story with much more coverage on the comments and their own direct literal translation of Al-Maliki's statement. The AP has a very good story out there too saying how this was a deliberate plan by Maliki to force Bush's hand. Jonathon Martin at politico also has a decent piece up (quoting the AP story as well).

We'll see if these stories set the tone of the coverage tomorrow. Especially if the dailies and cable shows follow the Times lead and front-page this. But it's going to take us and the Obama campaign to push it as well. If we keep this up, this could be the end of McCain.

Links to those articles: (4.00 / 3)
[ Parent ]
Under my command I will lead the troops rather than the other way around (0.00 / 0)
Would be a good soundbyte.  

He has had to answer the specific charge before and said as much.

I think a better way to handle it would be to ask if McCain would be his own man or would he be a captive of the generals?    The press deifies the military, but in elections the military man generally loses unless he won a major war.

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OK (0.00 / 0)
So when we started the Iraq war, the administration ignored military commanders' planning.  Now we're supposed blindly follow military commanders?  

How about we make the President the commander-in-chief, and he works with the commanders to best implement his policies?`

Bush and McCain (4.00 / 2)
only listen to generals who slavishly mouth White House talking points.

Otherwise Gen. Eric Shinseki would still be the Army Chief of Staff - he was forced out after telling Congress "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would probably be required for post-war Iraq.

And Adm. William Fallon would still be head of Centcomm - he was forced out after Esquire "described him as the only thing standing between the Bush Administration and war with Iran."

The reality is that Bush and McCain don't listen to independent thinking from generals - they appoint the ones who say exactly what they are told to say.

Retired generals and admirals were used as props in the propaganda campaign to sell Bush's invasion. Now active-duty generals and admirals are being used as props in the propaganda campaign for a permanent occupation.

http://www.democrats.com/mccai...

[ Parent ]
Bush and McCain only "follow" what their puppets say (0.00 / 0)
What bob fertik said. Any general that doesn't tell them what they want to hear is history. Remember Shinseki? Fallon? Rumsfield was feared and loathed in the Pentagon for his high handedness. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily. Disregarding military advice is fine, if it turns out that you are right and they are wrong. Didn't turn out that way with Shinseki, though.

As a political matter, though, this should be handled carefully. I'm not sure purely saying the military doesn't know what it's talking about would play well as a message.

[ Parent ]
A Matter of Scale (0.00 / 0)
Of course the President should consult with the leaders of his military when it comes to the best way to carry out his policy.  But it's absolutely ridiculous to allow those military leaders to determine the policy.  I'm also not at all comfortable with believing that the generals in Iraq are unbiased - their career prospects are directly tied to whether we "win" or "lose," and the definitions of those terms are largely going to be measured in body counts.
McCain: Forget Democracy, Do What The Military Says | 7 comments
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