Even though shrill elements of the Left (or am I being redundant?) wanted the military to defy Bush or even remove him over Iraq, the military's job is to follow civilian orders, as Secretary Gates reminds us:
Speaking for the Department of Defense, once the commander in chief makes his decisions, we will salute and execute those decisions faithfully and to the best of our ability," Gates told the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.
There should be no question of this faithfulness to our constitution. Regardless of what the president decides.
The president should also remember what his troops are willing to do to win if ordered to do so, as they did in that big Taliban attack that recently killed 8 of our troops in a long battle at an isolated outpost:
Some of the injured refused to be MEDEVACED out of the combat zone and continued to fight despite their wounds, according to soldiers at the base.
This not based on our constitution, but on their devotion to our country and their comrades. Our troops will fulfill their oaths regardless of what they are ordered to do, and go the extra mile to win.
I hope we order them to win. But above all else, they must follow civilian orders.
