Obama: Bush does not understand his role as Commander in Chief.

[calteacherguy]

New Hampshire
7/20/07



"When President Bush says, 'I just want to give the commanders what they want, listen to the generals,' he doesn't understand how we work here in America. Civilians control the military and we are supposed to set the mission for the generals and then the generals should carry out the mission," Obama said at an outdoor town hall meeting.

"The military has done all we asked. We just asked the wrong things of them. That's not their fault _ that's the president's fault, and we've got to stop enabling him to do it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002203.html

[lvx35]

1. Yeah, he says it really well.

And its totally true. What was the mission they were given? Drive around in circles looking for the Pink Elephant? (Or WMD) How can you succeed at that kind of mission???

[nealmhughes]

2. Commander in Chief merely means he trumps all the generals and admirals, along with the

DOD and Pentagon workers. It is up to the President to set the military policy and the generals/admirals to carry it out. Pure and simple.

Now it is up to Congress to declare war and ratify peace treaties as well as to fund the military and to confirm the civilian and upper military leadership. . . And the Congress can impeach the President, so who ultimately trumps whom?