I still think this is true, but I could see it on "our" side, too, as I wrote. I was at a loss to fully express my unease in all aspect but Tony Blankley does it pretty well for me, rounding out my unease by extending the complaint to the White House:
While many conservatives and military historians have long questioned President Truman's decision not to seek victory in Korea, Old Harry surely got one thing right: The buck stops in the Oval Office. It is the president -- not his generals -- who is ultimately and actually responsible for all war decisions.
President Bush's repeated assertion -- that he will make all troop-level decisions based on whatever his commanding generals say -- is a serious misreading of his responsibility. Notwithstanding the history of Lyndon Johnson micromanaging the Vietnam War by personally picking bombing targets, the real lesson of Vietnam was that President Johnson never sufficiently grilled his generals on how their plans would lead to victory.
Our military officers should not be in the position of shielding President Bush from the responsibility for when our troops come home. It is his decision. And our top generals serve the president, so they cannot give their honest opinion publicly as if they are a separate power bloc. Don't put them in that position and maybe retired generals won't step out and criticize as a few have done.
The decision of when we've won and can draw down our forces should be based on the advice of our top generals, of course; but it is the president's decision. And I don't like that he pushes responsibility for this important decision on the Pentagon.
