One thing you can never do as a leader is to loose ultimate responsibility for the actions taken by your organization. When your approach to leadership is telling your subordinates that they should do whatever it takes to get the job done, you not only run the risk of failure, you increase your responsibility for that failure— that’s doubly true when that organization is government and the subordinates are the military.
Take President G.W. Bush’s failure to make sure reorganizing FEMA under DHS allowed active communication and appropriate decision making throughout the chain of command during the first test of that reorganization—that assumes he or his executive staff were going to make better decisions, but that argument is for another day and someone who gives a damn about arguing it.
There is always a political component to the actions of a President—few as consequential as actions taken by the application of military force. All wars have a critical political component. Failure to take command of that component is dereliction of duty for a President. Of course taking control and making disastrous decisions, like abandoning your troops in the field of battle to engage in an unnecessary war elsewhere, can be just as dangerous as failing to command.
President Obama, it was reported, took an active role in insuring the military’s actions were not only in-line with the political goals for those actions, but were also staffed for success. His attention did not always lead to the best implementation, but it did ensure things like an extra chopper for the OBL raid.
Military leaders are in an untenable position having to obey the orders of a President they know will be standing behind them with a noose if it all goes wrong.